US slammed for attempt to influence journalist case

July 25, 2013 (rt.com) - Amnesty International has condemned the White House for its role in detention of a Yemeni journalist who exposed US involvement in a deadly 2009 cluster bombing.

The human rights group is urging the Yemeni authorities to investigate allegations that Abdulelah Shaye, a journalist recently released from jail, could have been put behind bars arbitrarily. The actual reason for his detention is arguably his reports revealing that a 2009 missile attack in Yemen’s Abyan area which killed 41 local residents - including 21 children - was carried out by the US and not by Yemen, as officially presented.

Shaye was arrested in August 2010 on charges of helping Al-Qaeda and militant US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, and was found guilty six months later and convicted to five years in jail. The journalist has always denied charges of his co-operating with the terrorist group, insisting he only held interviews with some of its members as part of his professional activity.