A novelist on the run [Archives:2002/26/Front Page]

The Western Court of Sanaa asked last week the public prosecutor to issue an arrest warrant against a novelist accused by the Ministry of Culture of abusing Islam and undermining the countrys conventions.
The novelist, Wajdi al-Ahdal left Yemen for Lebanon last month where he plans to seek political asylum as his life was threatened by religious fanatics and tribal members who pledged to kill him.
The court judge asked the public prosecutor to bring the novelist back, even by seeking the help of interpol to extradite al-Ahdal for trial, a judicial source said.
Saleh al-Baidhani and Nabil Ubaidi accused of helping in the publication of Quarib Jabaliya (Mountain Boats) appeared before a court last week. The Ministry of Culture ordered last month that copies of the novel be taken off shelves, charging the novelist of abusing religious and moral values of the society by drawing on Islamic terminology to describe erotic scenes. The Ministry also ordered the closure of the Ubadi Publishing Center.
Yemeni journalists and writers condemned this war against creation, labeling it as intellectual terrorism targeting writers of the country.
Al-Ahdal already said sectarian motives are behind this fuss about his novel because he made the city and the people of Sanaa his setting.
The next court session of the trial will be held next Wednesday.
Imposing of censorship
On the other hand a number of men of letters, intellectuals and lawyers intend to file a case against the ministry of culture which decided that no publication can be printed without the ministrys approval. MP and advocate Mohammed Naji Allaw told Yemen Times that the ministrys decision violates the law. He said the law guarantees authors the right to publish any book.
However if the book or the publication is deemed to violate the publication law the government may then ask the court to confiscate the book. Allaw said the people in the ministry of culture have misunderstand the law and are still acting with arrogant totalitarian mentality of the pre-unification (1990) era.
He added that on the basis of this illegal decision, the ministry officials then demanded money from the authors in return for granting them permission to publish. This happened to the writer Saeed Ahmed al-Jenahi. We are a poor country and we should be encouraging writers to write and publish instead of creating obstacles am outraged Allaw commented.
He pointed out that the National Authority for Rights and Liberties, which he presides, is to take on the responsibility of forcing the ministry of culture to abolish this decision. Otherwise, he said, We will do everything possible according to the law to get this decision cancelled. His plans for forcing the authoritarian hand of the government include taking the ministry to court, enlisting the assistance of international and local NGOs as well as holding press conferences and issuing statements to denounce a decision which runs contrary to the ambitions and interests of the Yemeni people.

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