A Sanaa court has banned a journalist from working for 10 months for libeling a minister by accusing him of corruption.
Saif Haderi, owner of editor-in-chief of the weekly Al-Shumu (The Candles), was also ordered to pay 13,000 dollars in damages to Education Minister Yahya Mohammed al-Shuaybi and his deputy, Abdel Malek Moallemi.
The court also fined the paper 650 dollars and Haderi 460 dollars for ignoring a ban on reporting court proceedings.
Haderi told AFP he was going to lodge an appeal because the court refused to take into account the documents on which his paper had based its article about the minister, which was published in May.
Shumu has built a reputation for its investigations into corruption and waste. It is the first time its articles have ended up in court proceedings.
Haderi's suspension comes as other Yemeni journalists are facing repercussions.
A leading Yemeni Islamist, Sheikh Majid Zendani, recently called for the authorities to carry out a flogging sentence ordered by a court on a journalist who accused him of adultery.
Islamists have also taken the editor-in-chief of the weekly Al-Jumhuriya al-Thaqafiya, Samir Yussufi, to court for publishing extracts of the novel "Sanaa Open City" by the major Yemeni writer Mohammad Abdel Wali, which they considered blasphemous - SANAA (AFP)
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