Judiciary sides with dismissed gov’t employees suing Presidential Office [Archives:2008/1127/Local News]
By: Mohammed Bin Sallam
SANA'A, Feb. 5 ) The Presidential Office has agreed to execute a court verdict regarding the case of journalist and government worker Abdurrahim Mohsen and his three colleagues, in addition to approving financial compensation for them effective from the first day of their banishment from their government posts following the 1994 Civil War, according to attorney Jamal Al-Ja'abi.
Additionally, “The Presidential Office has decreed that Mohsen cease criticizing it in newspapers and other media outlets,” Al-Ja'abi stated during his defense of Mohsen and his colleagues before the court.
The West Capital Court issued a preliminary ruling 10 days ago regarding the cases of those government employees transferred from Yemen's southern governorates to Sana'a following reunification in May 1990. Among them were Abdurrahim Mohsen, Fadhl Mohammed Al-Abdali, Labib Abdurrahman Al-Absi and Kamal Mohammed Al-Hakimi.
The court's ruling cancels 2003's administrative decision No. 20, which transferred Mohsen, former press officer and manager of the Presidential Office's Foreign Media Department, and his co-workers to the Information Ministry.
The court verdict states that Mohsen and his colleagues must receive compensation, allowances and other entitlements effective from 2003, according to the law. It further obliges the Presidential Office to pay their allowances and compensation, as well as reimburse their court costs.
Their attorneys maintain that the Presidential Office should carry out the verdict because it concerns the entitlements of those government workers who were forcibly dismissed from their jobs, adding that the court's verdict upholds their rights.
Similar government employees who were transferred from southern Yemen to Sana'a have been exposed to arbitrary procedures dismissing them from their posts following the 1994 Civil War. Mainly affected were those in senior and high-ranking government posts, although they were appointed by republican decree to occupy such posts.
Mohsen is a political activist and founder of a Yemeni opposition movement called “Quit,” which has been demanding that President Ali Abdullah Saleh quit power. He is a well-known critic of the government who has been subjected to various forms of harassment, including kidnapping and arrest, over the past several years because of his articles about Yemen's government and its policies.
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