Jamal Al-Badawi's family told Alkarama's representative in Yemen that they had been able to visit him in the State Security prison three times over the past week, after being denied visitation rights for many weeks. They said they had found him in a seriously worsened state, as a result of having been on hunger strike since 14 September 2010.

The family revealed that the Yemeni authorities had allowed Jamal Al-Badawi to meet with President Ali Abdallah Salih on 30 August 2010. The President promised to release him on Eid Al-Fitr (9 September 2010), however he has still not been released.

Alkarama calls on the Yemeni authorities to respond to Jamal Al-Badawi's family's demands for his release, and shares the family's concern about the victim's life because of his continued imprisonment, and the physical damage he may suffer through his hunger strike.

Jamal Muhammad Muhammad Ali Al-Badawi was born in 1964 in Mukayras, Aden. He was taken into custody more than once and accused of involvement in that attacks against the USS Cole, an American naval destroyer, in the port of Aden in 2000.

According to the family, Jamal Al-Badawi suffered abuse during his detention and was wounded by a gunshot during one of his arrests by the State Security forces. The penal court specialising in "State Security" issued a verdict on 29 September 2005 that Jamal Al-Badawi would be executed, but then amended this to 15 years imprisonment. However, his lawyers have confirmed that the trial was not fair, and human rights activists consider the sentence to have been only in response to American pressures on Yemen, since he is on Washington's Most Wanted list.

In February 2006, Jamal Al-Badawi, along with a group of 23 prisoners from State Security in Sanaa, managed to escape through an underground tunnel that they dug by hand. However, Badawi came back and surrendered to the Yemeni authorities in mid-October 2007, in return for promises that he would not be imprisoned - the President had given him his word that he would be pardoned.

While Jamal Al-Badawi was released immediately after his surrender, he remained under house arrest in Aden. However, this angered the United States, which had set a reward of $5 million for anyone who could provide information leading to his arrest, and under US pressure and criticism, the Yemeni government did not take long to put the man back in prison again, a week after he was released.

Since that date Jamal Al-Badawi has remained in detention in the State Security prison, awaiting the promised pardon, while his family lives in extremely difficult conditions, psychologically and economically.

Alkarama intends to raise the issue of Jamal Al-Badawi to the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights while Countering Terrorism, for him to examine the excesses and violations practiced by the Yemeni authorities against their citizens under the pretext of fighting terrorism.