Report gets results in Yemen

Washington Post:

Jaber Elbaneh, the al-Qaeda operative who had roamed free in Yemen despite a $5 million reward offered by the U.S. government for his capture, was jailed Sunday by a Yemeni judge.

Elbaneh's detention was ordered one day after a Washington Post article on how he was living under the personal protection of Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. The Yemeni government has repeatedly refused U.S. requests to extradite Elbaneh to stand trial on terrorism charges, straining diplomatic relations between the two countries.

According to Yemen's official news agency, a judge ordered Elbaneh's arrest after prosecutors filed a request to lock him up. Elbaneh is one of three dozen Yemeni defendants being tried on charges of conspiring to blow up oil installations in 2006.

Until Sunday, prosecutors had allowed Elbaneh to remain free while the trial proceeded in Sanaa, the capital, in spite of recent demands from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and other U.S. officials that he be imprisoned.

U.S. officials welcomed the news. "We have been waiting for the arrest of this wanted terrorist for a long time," said an official at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Elbaneh's arrest sends the right message that terrorists will be held accountable for their crimes."

...


The embassy staff may be overly optimistic but the Post deserves credit for provoking the arrest. It is about time, but Yemen's recent history of allowing al Qaeda convicts to escape or go free is troubling. The Yemenis seem indifferent to the concept of justice in these cases. It does appear that the media can shame them into appropriate action for now.

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