Yemeni Editor's Sentence Suspended Pending Appeal

In Yemen yesterday, the Sana'a Appeals Court suspended the prison sentence of a newspaper editor and the closure of his paper, pending appeal of his conviction for publishing Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Kamal Al-Olufi, editor-in-chief of Al-Rai Al-A'am weekly, had been in hiding for 17 days to avoid beginning the one-year jail sentence that had been handed down last month. (See prior posting.) Meanwhile, according to the same report in the Yemen Observer yesterday, lower courts continue to convict other journalists for reprinting the cartoons.