Minister of Justice Murshid al-Arashani has demanded President Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi to pardon a Yemeni journalist, Abdul-Elah Haidar Shaye who was imprisoned on charges of having associations with Al-Qaeda.
The minister asked Hadi to drop the remaining period of Haidar's sentence after spending over two years in jail.
The Yemeni Journalist Syndicate had organized several marches before Hadi's residency, urging to swiftly release Shaye.
Shaye, who was well known for holding interviews with high-ranking Islamic militants, was convicted of being a “front man” for al-Qaeda in 2011. He uncovered the U.S. role in a 2009 drone strike in southern Yemen that took the lives of more than a dozen women and children.
In January 2011, Shaye was arrested by the Yemeni government. After 34 days of confinement, he was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.
A number of local and international organizations appealed to the Yemeni government to immediately release Shaye.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on the Yemeni government to unleash Shaye, urging the Yemeni judiciary to demonstrate its independence by clearing Shaye of the baseless anti-state charges he faces.
Hadi who was elected in the wake of a pro-democracy pursing that ousted the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh had pledged that he would do best to promote freedom of press in Yemen, pointing out that he would look into the case of Shaye.
However, a report has recently issued by a Yemeni organization, Freedom Institution for rights, freedoms and development, revealed that the press freedom in Yemen still under risks, stressing that attacks on media expanded from government agencies to other parties in the society during this year.