Amnesty appeals for release of Al-Dailami and Miftah [Archives:2005/903/Local News]
SANA'A, Dec 9)Amnesty International has issued an appeal earlier this week regarding Al-Dialami's and Miftah's cases, in which it urged concerned human rights activists to call on the Yemeni authorities to release Yahia Hussein Al-Dailami and Mohamed Ahmed Miftah immediately and unconditionally. Amnesty argues that they are prisoners of conscience, held solely for the peaceful expression of their conscientiously held beliefs and for being members of the Zaidi community. In the appeal it has urged the President to intervene and stop the execution of Yahia Al-Dailami, and to remind the authorities that they are bound by international standards for fair trial in capital cases.
Yahia Hussein Al-Dailami's death sentence was upheld by the Court of Appeal in the capital, Sana'a, on 3 December. The sentence is expected to be passed to the Supreme Court in the next few days; if it upholds the death sentence, Yahia Hussein Al-Dailami could be facing imminent execution.
The other Zaidi cleric; Mohamed Ahmed Miftah was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment on 29 May at the same trial where Yahia Hussein Al-Dailami was sentenced to death, his sentence too will now be passed to the Supreme Court where the prosecution is likely to request the death penalty, if the Supreme Court agrees with this, they could refer his case back to the appeal court, asking them to reconsider the case. The complete process can run quickly, and we could see Mohamed Ahmed Miftah facing imminent execution within weeks.
Both men were sentenced after trial proceedings that fell short of minimum international standards for fairness. Amnesty International believes that both men are prisoners of conscience, held solely for their criticisms of the government, the peaceful expression of their conscientiously held beliefs or for being members of the Zaidi community. They were arrested in September 2004 and charged two months later with vaguely worded offences including communicating with Iran, conspiring to overthrow the republican system and supporting Hussain Badr Al-Din Al-Huthi (a Zaidi cleric who was an outspoken critic of the US invasion of Iraq).
Amnesty International has longstanding concerns about the use of the death penalty in Yemen and believes that scores of people have been executed so far this year. Among them was Fuad Ali Mohsen Al-Sharari, who was executed by firing squad on 29 November following a similarly unfair trial. The execution was carried out despite many appeals by Amnesty International and others, including the European Union, and Yemen's own Human Rights Ministry, one of the country's leading judges and Yemeni human rights groups.
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