Yemen arrests journalist over links with al-Qaida

A Yemeni journalist was arrested on Sunday over suspicion of having links with al-Qaida's attack on a Yemeni intelligence agency, a top intelligence official said.

"An arrest warrant was issued late today by the Director of the Political Security Agency (the intelligence) to capture Abdulelah Haidar Shaiee, a Yemeni analyst and journalist on the security affairs and al-Qaida group," the official told Xinhua.

"The arrest came following a statement that released on the same day by the Yemeni-based al-Qaida militants, in which they claimed responsibility for the June 19 attack on the intelligence headquarters in the southern port city of Aden," he said on condition of anonymity.

The intelligence official said that Shaiee is facing charges of having links with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

"He is accused of having close relations with the al-Qaida attackers who targeted the building of the intelligence service in Aden that left nearly 20 intelligence officers dead," he added.

Shaiee was taken by four gunmen from his friends' car in Hadda street, near the main intelligence headquarters in Sanaa late Sunday, said lawyer Abdulrahman Barman, a director of a non-governmental human right organization based in Sanaa.


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