Yemeni journalist Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani was very pleased to win Amnesty International’s Human Rights Media Award in June. Unfortunately he was unable to accept it from his jail cell in Sana’a, Yemen.

Jim Boumelha, president of the International Federation of Journalists, planned to deliver the award personally to al-Khaiwani. However, Yemen denied Jim’s visa on Saturday.

Al-Khaiwani is a punching bag for Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. The journalist uncovered massive corruption at the highest levels of the Yemeni government. He wrote about Yemen’s war crimes. And he’s paid for it.

Al-Khaiwani was imprisoned for six months in 2004. After his release, his newspaper was cloned. “Cloning” is a nifty little tactic whereby the government takes control of a paper and publishes it with pro-government content in an effort to deceive the readers.

Al-Khaiwani’s website was blocked in Yemen. He was threatened. When he didn’t stop writing about corruption and the Sa’ada War, al-Khaiwani was kidnapped and brutally beaten, his fingers broken. He was arrested on bogus terrorism charges and received a six year sentence in June. After he gave an interview from jail, prison authorities withheld his insulin and threw a rat in his cell.

But maybe Yemeni President Saleh is not such a bad guy. After all, he funded the construction of a giant new mosque with his own money, at a cost of about a quarter of a million dollars. Where and how Saleh got such excess funds is just not discussed. President Saleh named the mosque “The Al-Saleh Mosque.” Catchy!

President Saleh ordered the release of 864 demonstrators, arrested during protests for equal rights in Southern Yemen. Unfortunately there’s little Saleh can do for the dozens of people that were killed by security forces during the year long southern protests. Or those killed in the military’s bombing of Yemeni villages during the northern Sa’ada War. Even the great and mighty Saleh can’t raise the dead.

But still, one has to appreciate that Saleh ordered the release of nationally beloved comedian Fahd al-Qarni.

A funny guy that al-Qarni, he opted to stay in jail rather than sign a pledge promising not to make political jokes anymore. There has to be a joke in there somewhere. Maybe it’s that Saleh insists Yemen is a democracy whenever Western officials arrive, and then he locks up journalists, comedians and demonstrators once they go.