Foolish email offer to spy for Israel brings a death sentence in Yemen

His wife was taken to the hospital right after she heard the news, his mother - who has already had a stroke after his conviction has seen her health decline.

Many local and international human rights organizations and activists were appaled by the sentence and condemned it as harsh, an politically inspired.

Abdul-Rahman Barman and Ahmed Arman, lawyers and senior members in HOOD Human Rights organization, called the verdict unjust. They will appeal the sentence before the Supreme Court within the next few months.

They refused to represent al-Haidari in the Specialized Criminal Court because- arguing along with many lawyers - that the court is designed to protect the state's interests and does not meet the standards of fair trail.

Human Rights Watch expressed deep concerns of the sentence for plenty of reasons. "We are deeply concerned that the court proceedings against Basam al-Haidari fell short of international fair-trial standards," said Letta Tayler, a terrorism and counterterrorism researcher at Human Rights Watch.

An Email equals death penalty

Al-Haidari started a company with other friends sponsoring the concerts of Arab celebrities in Yemen. The first project in August 2008 was to host the well-known Arab artist Ehab Tawfiq but sthreats by alleged Qaeda members caused them to cancel the concert. This led to debts and financial troubles for al-Haidari and his partners.

In the investigation reports al-Haidari mentioned that he made up a delusional organization called "the Islamic Jihad Organization," and sent threats to embassies and threatened that he was planning to perform terrorist acts.

The purpose of doing this, he said, was to learn about al-Qaeda and gain access to President Saleh and get help with their financial woes..

Essam Dwaid, 35, told unfreemedia.org that he did not partner with Basam and therefore did not set him up with the authorities as various news accounts claim.

Also al-Haidari was not a friend, he said. Kahtan al-Zabeedi, a now deceased friend, asked him to support his business with al-Haidari. He promised to help them to speed up permits from the government in case they found difficulty wit the bureaucracy. "I am a supportive person by nature and I helped them with money. Kahtan was one of the dearest people to my heart."

Dwaid received threats from al-Qaeda "for other matters that concerned the country" as he put it and al-Haidari told him that he also received threats from al-Qaeda, said Dwaid. "But I then realized that he was faking it."

In 2008, during Ramadan, Basam was so desperate he went to an internet café and sent an email to the official website of the Israeli government, his wife Ishraq al-Bokhaiti, 23, told unfreemedia.org.

The authorities discovered the incriminating email, when the letters he sent claiming to be part of the Jihad Organization were discovered on the hard drive of the computer he used in another internet café.

The single email message is at the heart of the evidence in his spying case. 
"We are The Jihad Organization. You Jewish, if you promise you fulfill your promises despite the fact that you are Allah's enemies and Islam's as well. You are not like our lying Arab rulers. If you want we will be a hard stone in the Middle East for your interest. We are ready to help you and your answer is up to you," says the e-mail alleged to be sent by al-Haidari.

The defendant lawyers were refused a copy of the Israeli government's response in Hebrew. The translation was reported to be inconsistent with the actual message.

In the Primary Court it is translated as that the Israeli government welcomed his offer and accepted him as "a hard stone in the middle east."

Yet, a second translation, requested by the defendant lawyer, makes no sense. "I really doubt that they translated by some professionals and it seems like they Google translated it or something," said Barman, who was an observer of the court proceedings.

According to the Yemeni law, espionage and seeking for espionage is sentenced to death penalty. Yet, lawyers with some human rights activists said that the email cannot be an evidence of espionage or even attempted espionage.

Espionage can happen in terms of law when the alleged spy has crucial national information that could jeopardize the country, said Arman. Al-Haidari has no information, in addition, the delusional company that he made it up and the kind of statements that he always sent, it shows clearly that he cannot make a serious spy.

"Attempting espionage should include serious acts that show the serious longing to involve in espionage. This was just an email, he could've been sentenced to a slight sentence death sentence is really harsh," he added.

Human Rights Watch is against death penalty in all fronts but it concurs that the sentence was not just. "While we oppose the death penalty in all cases, someone to his or her death on the basis of proceedings that may not have been conducted fairly is a heinous miscarriage of justice," added Taylor.

Al-Haidari alleged that he was tortured during the preliminary investigation in the Criminal Investigation Bureau. Arman said that torture claims should be proven to be considered. However, CIB has been reported of torturing many cases and for illegal arrest, according to many local and international human rights reports. "Which makes al-Haidari's allegation possible," said Arman.

Local Human Rights activists and analysts believe that the statement of the Yemeni President Ali Abudllah Saleh made last October 2008 in the national TV wrote the verdict in advance and it was just a way to play up the potentials of the Yemeni security agencies. "Our judiciary system is weak, so they cannot show that President Saleh is wrong," said Barman.

Abdulelah Shai, a terrorism expert, said that Yemen is becoming known of using terrorism as a business, and al-Haidari is the very example to represent that. Al-Haidari was told that terrorism is making a lot of money these days. "He is just a victim."

The Israeli government has denied the claims of the Yemeni government of any attempt had been carried out to recruit a spy from Yemen.

Al-Bokhaiti said the email is just the evidence. "This is a death sentence for Intention." 
Family facing poverty, social denial:

Eshraq al-Bokhaiti, 23-year-old petite wife, was married 7 years ago to al-Haidari having Arghad, 6, and Lama 1. But it has never come to her mind that she could be a widow at any moment. "I don't want Basam to die. I can tolerate anything and I will support his children if he is even sentenced to life-time period."

Despite that Yemen is a male-oriented country but according to human rights activists in many of the major human rights violations like Guantanmou, women are the ones who dedicated themselves to claim their male relatives, throwing themselves to the danger by the society or the government in some cases. Al-Bokhait is the only one who is claiming her husband's release, following his cases, seeking financial support for the family by doing few tutoring classes for the children in the neighborhood and contacting charitable organization to help the family.

Ahmed al-Qurashi, the head of SEYAJ for Childhood Protection said that he is upset from all charitable organizations that refused to help al-Haidari's children. "They told me we cannot give donations to the children of someone accused of espionage for Israel. It is not fair to punish children."

SEYAJ has sent this week a letter to the President seeking an amnesty for the father under his children's name.

Al-Bokhaiti said that she received many threats by some security agencies to stop her efforts and cut communication with the media and the lawyers for the sake of releasing her husband. In many cases, she was obliged to say that she is from a powerful tribe so they wouldn't perceive her as weak.

In Arab country due to the Arab-Isreal conflict, such a charge of being an Isreali spy could ruin any one's normal life. Al-Haidari's family is verbally abused by the community. "We are dubbed as 'the Israeli Embassy' and people threw words when they saw us buying even a bag of tomato," said Raja Nassir, around 45, al-Haidari's mother.

Al-Bokhaiti said that she did not care about the hints and the harassments said by the neighbors. "But it really hurts me when they harass my son telling him that his father is a spy and he will be killed," she said. The mother and the grandmother said that Arghad looks much older than he is. "He said things that I don't know," the grandmother said. Al-Bokhaiti said that Arghad knows things more above his age like the names of the Israeli' president. Many times he came to ask her "Who is better President Obama or Saleh?"

If it happened that he saw President Saleh in T.V, he shouted "Get Baba Basam out." Despite his affection to his father, he always refused to visit him in jail," said al-Bokhaiti. Her son shouted at night, and she could not have yet put him in school because she is afraid that he would be more traumatized.

Al-Bokhaiti said that even her husband has his own share. "He has now liver problems out of fear," she said

The other convicts got light sentence for other minor charges of publishing false statement under the name of the delusional Jihad Organization. Along with being convicted of being a spy, al-Haidari was also accused of doing fraud works but he was guilty for the espionage charge only.