Mr. Sha'i appeared, for the first time, before a Yemeni court specialising in "terrorism and state security" in Sanaa on Tuesday 26 October 2010. His lawyers, attended in the hearing out of solidarity but refused to plead before the court, considering it "unconstitutional" and "before which the standards of justice are not met", whose goal is "simply to whitewash the secret services' violations of the accused rights".

Following Mr Sha'i's hearing, Alkarama's delegate in Yemen gathered with several journalists and members of the local and foreign media in the court room out of solidarity for Mr Sha'i. The gathering was in response to call from the Yemeni Journalists' Union and the "6 Ramadan Alliance", an alliance of lawyers, human rights activists and journalists.

The prosecutor charged Mr. Sha'i, and another citizen being tried, Abdul Karim Ashami, with "belonging to an illegal armed group and working for the benefit of a terrorist organisation". It is the exact same accusation used by the Yemeni authorities to excuse the violations committed by the Yemeni secret services under the pretext of the so-called "War on Terror".

Lawyers, journalists, and human rights activists in Yemen, all consider the accusations against Mr. Sha'i to be "politically motivated". Such fabricated accusations are used to scare journalists from revealing facts regarding on-going human rights violations, particularly those linked to the American bombing raid over parts of Yemen, said to have targeted "presumed terrorists" - however the victims turned out to be innocent civilians.

Since December 2009, American and Yemeni planes have been carrying out intermittent airstrikes against tribal areas of Yemen, which have killed and wounded tens of people, most of which are women and children. The airstrikes used cluster bombs, which are banned according to international law. Abdul Ilah Haydar Sha'i was the first to cover these events in the media and reveal the identities of the victims.

It is clear from the minutes of the charges levied against Mr. Sha'i and Mr Ashami that the evidence used consists of electronic communications, which the prosecution claims to have taken place between Mr Sha'i and people wanted in suspicion of links to terrorism groups. The implications are that Mr Sha'i's arrest and torture were used in order to reveal his supposed "terrorist" links. The goal of the trial was to simply whitewash the violations which took place throughout his detention.
During the first hearing, Mr. Sha'i and Mr Ashami rejected the authority of the court due to the "illegal" practices which led to their imprisonment. They demanded that a court investigate the violations against them, starting with their arbitrary arrest, followed by their 35-day disappearance, during which they were subjected to physical torture. However, the court's judge did not heed these demands, and defended the security forces' practices, going so far as to call them "legal".

When the judge did not heed Mr. Sha'i's demands for an investigation into the allegations of human rights violations carried out by the security services, Mr Sha'i turned his back on the court, facing the journalists and media representatives, and said: "The decision to arrest me was taken on 27 December 2009, when I exposed the killings of children and women in Al-Mu`jila in Abyan and in the Rufud area in Shabwa and in Arhab north of Sanaa, which were all targeted by American plans, under the pretext of the so-called "War on Terror"".

The Yemeni police arrested Abdul Ilah Haydar Sha'i for the first time on 11 July 2010 in Sanaa, and later released him after six hours of questioning. He was then detained another time at his home on 16 August 2010 and was detained in a secret jail belonging to the National Security forces in Sanaa. He was made disappeared for 35 days before being taken to a detention centre belonging to the Political Security forces.

According to his lawyers, who were allowed to see him during the interrogation sessions at the Political Security headquarters, he bore the marks of torture on his chest and other parts of his body and one of his teeth was broken.
The arrest and forced disappearance of Mr Sha'i set off a wave of counter-actions both locally and internationally. Among these, Alkarama addressed two urgent appeals to the Special Rapporteur on Torture and the Special Rapporteur for the Protection and Promotion of the Right to Freedom of Expression and Opinion asking them to intervene in his case.

Sha'i's lawyers say that the Yemeni authorities are trying to whitewash the violations committed by National Security and Political Security apparatus, by giving him an unfair trial before the "Penal Court Specialising in State Security".
On the same day Reporters Without Borders issued a report condemning, in the strongest possible terms, the charges levied against the journalist Abdul Ilah Haydar Sha'i and demanded his immediate release.

Reporters Without Borders is quoted as having said that "Mr Sha'i has been detained in an iniquitous manner that contravenes all the legal principles in place in Yemen. Moreover, his physical condition has been undermined through mistreatment, torture and solitary confinement. As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights since 1987, Yemen should respect his right to a fair trial."

On Monday 25 October 2010, journalists, lawyers and human rights activists organised a solidarity conference entitled "The Detention of Abdul Ilah Haydar Sha'i - American demands, or a political decision?!", during which the participants demanded the release of Mr. Sha'i and warned against the spread of human rights violations in the country under the pretext of the so-called "War on Terror".

Alkarama is extremely concerned by the number of increasing attacks against journalists in Yemen, and the spread of human rights violations in general, and the efforts to silence voices opposing the inhumane and repressive policies used by the government in the context Yemen's so-called "War on Terror", and demands that the Yemeni government to immediately release all arbitrary detainees in the prisons of Security and the Secret Services, and to cease the practice extrajudicial executions, and open a independent inquiry into the allegations of torture at the hands of the Yemeni security forces.