On the first day of his trial Monday before a state security court, journalist Abdul Ilah Haydar Shae challenged the court’s legality and said those responsible for his abduction and forced disappearance should also be on trial, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF).
His lawyers, Abdel Rahman Barman and Khaled Al-Anssi, attended the hearing as observers and reaffirmed their support for him, but refused to participate as his defence on the grounds that the trial was illegal. It was adjourned till November 2.
“This court is utterly illegal,” Barman told RSF. “Article 49 of the constitution forbids setting up special courts to try people. Furthermore, Shae was arrested and imprisoned without any official grounds being given. He was beaten in front of his family and forcibly taken away at night to an unknown location. His personal effects were seized by the police and furniture was smashed because of the violence used in the raid. And then a month went by without anyone knowing what had happened to him.”
Abducted from his home by a special security unit on August 16, Shae was held incommunicado for 34 days. The court ordered him moved to a state security detention centre on September 22 for interrogation. Barman said these detention centres had no legal basis, either under Yemeni law or under international law. They are not subject to any judicial control.
Barman added: “Shae was kept in solitary confinement for a further month, in a room without a toilet. He was tortured and has a broken tooth. At no time during his detention have we had access to his case file or been able to question him. Human rights and Yemeni law have been flouted. This court was created by presidential decision. It is a direct creation of the executive. The prosecutor is judge and jury.”
