SANAA:
Defense lawyers on Tuesday rejected charges that a Yemeni journalist on
trial backs Shiite rebels, saying material about the insurgents found
in his possession was needed for his work. "CDs and documents mentioned
in the charge sheet do not amount to proof that our client was a member
of an armed group," Nabil al-Mohammadi, a member of the defense team
for Abdel-Karim al-Khiwani, told a court in Sanaa. "Our
client got these CDs and papers by virtue of his job as a professional
journalist, which is a right guaranteed by laws and the constitution,"
he told the court, which is trying Khiwani and 14 others from the
minority Zaidi Shiite community. The
evidence contained material about a Zaidi rebellion that has been
raging on and off in northwestern Yemen since 2004, claiming thousands
of lives. The trial of Khiwani, editor of
the Zaidi weekly Al-Shura, and the others opened in July. The
defendants, including two women, were accused of forming an armed group
and plotting to attack troop transports and government buildings and to
contaminate the water supply of military bases. The defense team said
all were innocent and called for their release. The
courtroom was packed with dozens of lawyers, rights activists and other
supporters who turned up to express solidarity with Khiwani. The
defense team also rejected charges against Khiwani on the grounds that
authorities had eavesdropped on his telephone calls without an order
from the prosecution. "The
law doesn't permit eavesdropping except through an order issued by the
prosecution ... and for a specific telephone call with the aim of
preventing a crime," said Hayel Salam, who heads the defense team. A
representative of the prosecution had during a previous hearing shown
the court weapons, explosives and ammunition allegedly belonging to the
group. The court adjourned the case
until April 8. An
offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Zaidis are a minority in mainly Sunni
Yemen but form the majority in the northwest of the impoverished
Arabian Peninsula country. - AFP