SANAA, 24 March 2005 — Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh yesterday pardoned an opposition journalist, a day after a court of appeals upheld a one-year jail term against him.
Abdul-Kareem Al-Khaiwani, editor in chief of the Al-Shoura weekly, has been in jail since Sept. 5 last year when a Sanaa court convicted him of supporting rebel leader Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi.
President Saleh announced the pardon during a meeting with a government committee in charge with carrying out dialogue with extremists, a senior government official told Arab News.
The officials said Al-Khaiwani would be released later in the day.
A Sanaa appeal court confirmed on Tuesday a one-year jail term against Al-Khaiwani and a six-month ban on his newspaper.
On Sept. 5, a primary court found Al-Khaiwani guilty of defaming President Saleh and supporting the rebel leader Al-Houthi, who was killed last September in skirmishes with government forces.
Al-Khaiwani was also convicted of publishing “false reports and statements aiming at fomenting sectarian strife.”
The charges stemmed from opinion articles published in the weekly defending the revolt led by Al-Houthi and harshly criticizing the government’s fight against Al-Houthi’s followers.
In his articles published last July, Al-Khaiwani also labeled Saleh as an “agent of the United States.”
