SANAA, 20 May 2004 — A Yemeni opposition newspaper and a columnist would go on trial for publishing articles including insults to the Kingdom, a Yemeni Information Ministry official said in remarks published yesterday.
The Al-Ehyaa Al-Araby weekly and writer Abdul-Jabbar Saad were referred to court, “for violating press laws, harming Yemen’s relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and promoting terrorism, extremism and their perpetrators,” the official was quoted as saying by the state-run Ath-Thawra daily.
Al-Ehyaa Al-Araby published an article on Sunday written by Saad containing an unbalanced analysis of the Kingdom’s internal and foreign policies. “It is insulting and unacceptable and has nothing to do with freedom of speech,” said the Yemeni official.
The Ath-Thawra newspaper reported that Saad was dismissed from his post as director of the Custom Authority’s branch in the Red Sea province of Hodeidah for “abusing his post through his attempts to damage Yemeni-Saudi ties.”
In a front-page editorial, Ath-Thawra extended its apologies to the Saudi leadership for the article.
