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Kamal al-Olufi, editor of the Al-Rai Al-A’am weekly, was freed from prison this afternoon, pending his appeal. He had been thrown in jail earlier today, after Judge Hassan al-Akwa’a sentenced him to a year behind bars for insulting Islam and abusing the prophet.

A group of newspaper reporters and editors gathered this afternoon at the headquarters of the Yemen Journalists Syndicate, to hold a sit-in in protest of the sentencing of al-Olufi.

The judge also ordered that the newspaper be shut down for six months, and that al-Olufi be banned from writing for the same period, upon completion of his prison sentence. Moreover, al-Olufi was also sentenced to pay for the publishing of the court verdict in all the newspapers in the country.

Al-Rai Al-A’am ran an image of the Danish paper Jyllands Posten’s homepage, on which with some of the cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed were visible. The Al-Rai Al-A’am was defending the prophet, and protested the Danish cartoons, according to its editor, Al-Olufi.

Defense lawyers Mohammed Naji Allawo and Khaled Al-Anesi described the verdict as a scandal. However, the lawyers of radical sheikh Abdul-Majid Al-Zindani, whose accusations against the press and various editors were rejected by the judge, were visibly happy and excited to hear the sentence. Zindani commissioned 21 prosecutors to prosecute newspapers and editors who republished images of the Danish cartoons.

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The Yemen Observer's Editor, Mohammed Al-Asaadi, is also facing charges, along with two other newsapapers:

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Yemen Observer’s license was revoked and closed down in February for three months after republishing obscured fragments of the Danish cartoons in thumbnail size. The prosecutors accused Al-Asaadi of intending willingly to abuse the prophet (PBUH) and Islam. Some 21 private prosecutors, commissioned by radical Sheikh Abdul-Majid Al-Zindani, called for capital punishment against Al-Asaadi in an indirect way.

Two other newspapers - Al-Hurriyah and Al-Rai Al-A’m - are accused of republishing the Danish cartoons are still waiting for the verdicts to be announced this month.

Working conditions for journalists in Yemen worsened in 2006, says the Worldwide Press Freedom Index, an annual report published by the French organization Reporters Without Borders. In fact, the report found, only 18 countries in the world have less press freedom than Yemen does.

Out of the 168 counties surveyed, Yemen ranked 149th in 2006, down from 136th last year. The countries at the top of the list—those with the freest presses—are mainly European, and include Finland, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic.

Denmark, which ranked 19th, was dropped from joint first place because of serious threats leveled against the authors of the cartoons picturing the Prophet Mohammad, published there in the autumn of 2005. For the first time in recent years in a country that is very observant of civil liberties, journalists had to have police protection due to threats against them because of their work.

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[ 26 November 2006: Message edited by: EmmaG ]

[ 26 November 2006: Message edited by: EmmaG ]