Cartoonist Kamal Sharaf shows Shaye locked up while US Ambassador to Yemen Gerald Feierstein looks on holding the keys. The text says: Freedom for the Journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye

Yemeni journalist Abdul-Elah Haidar Shaye, imprisoned in Sana’a since August 2010, is set to be released “soon”, according to a new presidential order. But this is not the first time a Yemeni president has pledged to set him free.

Shaye, sentenced in January 2011 to five years in prison for allegedly being a “media man for al-Qaeda’, should have walked free a month later. Weeks after his sentence was handed down in the Special Criminal Court for Security Affairs, then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh issued a pardon for his release. But a day later Washington stepped in. In a phone call between Barack Obama and his Yemeni counterpart, the US president “expressed concern” over Shaye’s impending release. The presidential pardon was never carried out. Shaye has remained in the capital’s notorious Political Security prison ever since.

On Tuesday night the office of Saleh’s sucessor, President Hadi confirmed that “there is an order from the president to release him [Shaye] soon”, without elaborating on when this is likely to happen. Shaye’s family remain sceptical about the order that was given about a week ago. “We’ve heard nothing of the sort and it’s like the same as previous promises. So far this is the fourth time Hadi has made this promise,” said Shaye’s brother, Khaled.

During his trial — at which the journalist turned down legal representation as he refused acknowledge the legitimacy of the court — Shaye indicated the real reason behind his detention was his reporting on US strikes and specifically the deaths of civilians including 14 women and 21 children killed in a sea-launched cruise missile strike on the village of al-Majala in December 2009.  Despite the Yemeni government claiming they were responsible for destroying an “al-Qaeda training camp” Shaye blamed the killings on America after visiting the village in the province of Abyan and finding US made bomb remnants.

Seven months after the al-Majala bombing and following his criticism of both the Yemeni and US Governments, Shaye was abducted by Political Security Organisation [PSO] gunmen. Beaten and threatened before being released, in response Shaye went back on television. A month later, in August 2010, his house was raided by Yemen’s elite US-trained and funded Counter Terrorism troops. Shaye was once again beaten and tortured, according to the Yemeni human rights organisation HOOD, during 34 days in solitary confinement with no access to a lawyer or family members.

In an October 2010 court hearing, after more than two hours of the prosecution presenting its case, Shaye was allowed just a few minutes to respond. In those moments he suggested what he believes is the real motive behind his incarceration. “When they hid murderers of children and women in Abyan, when I revealed the locations…it was on that day they decided to arrest me,” he shouted from behind the bars of cell alongside the courtroom.

Leaked diplomatic cables released shortly after after the conclusion of his trial confirmed Sahye’s accusations that the US had indeed carried out the al-Majala bombing.

In an interview last year with the US Ambassador to Sana’a, Gerald Feierstein reiterated to me America’s interest in his case. “Haidar Shaye is in jail because he was facilitating al-Qaeda and its planning for attacks on Americans and therefore we have a very direct interest in his case and his imprisonment,” he said. No evidence has ever been produced by either the US or Yemeni Government to support the claim that Shaye was facilitating any such attacks.

Yemeni journalists have repeatedly expressed their lingering fear over America’s meddling in Shaye’s case. Many became afraid to report on air strikes. One Yemeni journalist, like Shaye a specialist on al-Qaeda, renamed himself an “analyst of Islamic groups” and refused to do TV interviews especially with Al Jazeera after what happened to Shaye.

Since Shaye’s imprisonment in 2010 the US resumed its drone strike programme in Yemen during 2011, following a year-long break. Last year the number of strikes reached an all-time high, surpassing the number carried in Pakistan for the first time, according to monitoring groups.

In February last year Shaye went on hunger strike, but was persuaded by his family to halt the protest at his continued detention when his health rapidly deteriorated.

Human rights and press freedom organisations have continued to demand his release. On World Press Freedom Day last week the International Federation of Journalists [IFJ] reiterated its call for an end to his incarceration in a letter to the Yemeni president. In a meeting with IFJ president Jim Boumelha last year Hadi had promised to do “everything in his power” to free Shaye.

It’s unclear if this most recent order will be carried out, or if Washington will once again seek to keep Shaye behind bars.

The US Embassy in Sana’a failed to respond to requests for comment on the presidential release order.

Iona Craig is a freelance journalist based in Sana’a, Yemen and The Times of London Yemen Correspondent. She also writes for USA Today, The Sunday Times and regularly contributes to The National (UAE) and Index on Censorship
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Shaye was sentenced last month to five years in prison for being the “media man” for Al-Qaeda. The 34 year-old journalist was found guilty of “participating in an armed gang, having links with Al-Qaeda and for taking photographs of Yemen security bases and foreign embassies to be targeted by the terrorist organisation.”

In the wake of uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, President Saleh made a string of concessions and welfare reforms to quell mounting opposition and calls for him to resign. Shaye’s presidential pardon, announced last Tuesday, was in keeping with recent compromises. But in a phone call with his US counterpart on 2 February, in which Obama congratulated Saleh for his recent political reforms, the US president also expressed his “concern” over the intended release of Shaye.

Taken from his house in the middle of the night in August last year and held for 34 days without access to a lawyer or his family, Shaye’s trial began last October. The journalist made his name after interviewing radical cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki. Shaye was also the first journalist to claim the US was behind bombings in the southern province of Abyan in December 2009, which killed 55 people including 21 children as well as 14 alleged Al-Qaeda members. Shaye’s claims were confirmed in a leaked diplomatic cable released on 3 December. The leaked document recorded a meeting between President Saleh and the then head of US central command, General David Petraeus, during which they discussed the aftermath of the December bombings. Saleh told Petraeus “We’ll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours.”

Shaye’s lawyers, who did not represent him in court on the grounds that the journalist refused to recognise the legitimacy of his trial, say the charges against him were fabricated as a result of his reporting on Al-Qaeda and his accusations against the Yemeni and US governments.

Khaled Al-Anesi, a lawyer from human rights organisation HOOD, told the Yemen Times on Sunday that there were suspicions that the US wanted him jailed.

“This American interference insures that Yemen’s dealing with terrorism is run by the US,” said Al-Anesi. “If they wanted to release him they would have released him immediately straight after the pardon was announced. This is a sign that they don’t want to set him free.”

Shaye’s continued detention at the request of Barack Obama would not be the first time Yemeni prisoners have been detained at the behest of the US. Recently leaked diplomatic cables revealed that 28 Yemenis were held, ‘based on USG [US government] objections” despite Saleh agreeing to release them in a Ramadan amnesty in 2004.

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With prayer beads wrapped tightly around his right hand, Abdul-Elah Haidar Shaye paced slowly around the white cell, smiling and shaking his head in disbelief as the judge listed the charges, stopping occasionally to pose for photographers seated on the other side of the steel mesh wall that separated him from the court.

Shaye, a Yemeni journalist, accused by the state of being the “media man” for Al-Qaeda in Yemen, attended the first hearing of his case, on Tuesday, since his arrest more than 65 days ago. Friend and co-defendant Abdul Kareem Al Sham, was accused of assisting Shaye by passing e- mails between the journalist and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) members.

The 34-year-old, was taken, by force and without charge, from his home on 16 August, by Yemen’s Political Security Organization (PSO) and held for 34 days without access to a lawyer or his family. After his previous appearance in court, on 22 September, Shaye was transferred to a state security prison. His lawyer, Abderrahman Barman, claims Shaye was kept in solitary confinement, tortured and beaten during his detention.

Amongst the evidence from the prosecution Shaye was accused of working as a media advisor for Yemeni-American radical preacher Anwar Al-Awlaki — labelled as mentor to the failed Detroit bomber in December 2009 — and of holding meetings with senior leaders of AQAP, urging them to strike Yemeni and foreign interests.

Prosecutors said photographs of Yemen security bases and foreign embassies, found on his laptop, were being passed to Al-Qaeda as potential targets. In a detailed statement read out to the court prosecutors said Shaye was recruiting new members on behalf of the terrorist organisation.

Shaye, who specialised as a terrorism and Al-Qaeda expert, conducted an exclusive interview with Anwar al-Awlaki for Al-Jazeera in 2009.

He chose not to be represented by a lawyer on the grounds that the trial was illegal, and refused to recognise the legitimacy of proceedings in the Special Criminal Court for Security Affairs. In reply to the charges and prosecution evidence, which took nearly two hours to present, Shaye was given just a few minutes to respond.

“I disappeared for 35 days. Then I was kept in prison for another 30 days, on your orders, judge,” shouted Shaye through the bars of his cell. “Now the 30 days are over, I request immediate release and demand you order the arrest of the intelligence officers who kidnapped me.”

Locked in a tiled room, adjacent to the court, visible through a white metal grill, Shaye spoke confidently, appearing healthy and in good spirits.

Shaye’s case closely reflects that of Mohamed al-Maqaleh, editor of the Yemeni Socialist Party news website Aleshteraki. Taken by the PSO in September 2009, the government denied holding al-Maqaleh for the first five months of his detention. After two court hearings, including one in the newly created press court, his case was dissolved.

In May 2009 the government created a special journalists court for “press offences”. New legislation is currently being drafted to tighten the existing Press and Publications Law against defaming the state and the president. Proposed amendments to the penal code will increase prison sentences for offenders. A new bill, to regulate television, radio, and online media is also being drafted.  Details of the proposed changes remain unclear.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which last week released the 2010 Press Freedom Index ranking Yemen 170 out of 178 countries, responded to Shaye’s trial by calling on the Yemeni authorities to “immediately release the journalist’’ and “abolish the special courts.”

RSF is not optimistic about the future for press freedom in Yemen. “Since September 2009 we have been really concerned regarding press freedom and the life of journalists (in Yemen),” said RSF’s Soazig Dollet, head of the North Africa & Middle-East desk, in a phone call. “Even without the new legislation I don’t think the situation will improve.”

Three US journalists have been deported this year, most recently Ellen Knickmeyer, two weeks after writing an October article, critical of Yemen’s president, for Foreign Policy magazine. More than 56 international media organisations have been denied entry into Yemen in the last three months, according to a Hakim Almasmari, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Yemen Post. This figure has not been confirmed by Yemeni authorities. This is “a strategy by the government to limit what people should know about Yemen, to what the government wants them to know,” said Almasmari in an editorial on October 4.

Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has been in power for 32 years, initially as leader of the northern Yemen Arab Republic and then as president of the Republic of Yemen, following unification with the south in 1992. Elections, postponed since April 2009, are due to take place in May 2011.

Shaye’s next court appearance is set for 2 November.

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