Yemen Observer: http://www.yobserver.com
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Reports
Written By: Zaid al-Alaya’a
Article Date: Oct 11, 2008 - 4:07:12 AM
The theft of Yemen’s cultural heritage remains a major problem. Lax punishments and poorly defined laws against smuggling Yemeni artifacts out of the country ensure that these crimes continue unabated. This article examines the legal proceedings against several leading smugglers of Yemeni artifacts, as well as steps being taken to stem the flow of artifacts from the country. Several interesting proposals put forward to defend Yemen’scultural heritage will be examined.
The Archeology Prosecutor’s Office has released a Jordanian suspect charged with smuggling Yemeni antiquities out of the country. The suspect was put under house arrest in Sana’a a few days before his trial was to begin. He was to stand trial in one of the most notorious cases of Yemeni antiquities smuggling.
The Archeology Prosecutor’s Office released Samir Hamed Jad Allah, the Jordanian suspect, at the end of September without legal justification. This, however, contradicted an earlier verdict which ordered his arrest for trading stolen Yemeni artifacts. The court charged him with this crime when a Yemeni citizen from al-Jawf governorate issued a complaint demanding the court force Jad Allah to pay him $19,000, the cost of some of the stolen Yemeni artifacts.
Sources within the judiciary said that security forces arrested Jad Allah in May while coming from Hadhramaut carrying a bundle of wooden artifacts and copper objects. This was a violation of the conditions of Jad Allah’s parole as he was not supposed to leave Sana’a.
Jad Allah was released after being initially detained by security forces in February 2005 when approximately 1 kilogram of ancient Humiriate gold was found in his home along with several other stone and bronze artifacts. The Archeology Prosecutor’s Office demanded Jad Allah be put under house arrest in Sana'a, and prohibited from traveling to other parts of the country.
The defendant, who is currently being tried in an Appeals Courts, was known to be moving and traveling in the governorates of al-Jawf, Mareb and Dhamar to collect rare Yemeni artifacts. According to a source from the General Authority of Protecting Archeology, Jad Allah received help from local assistants in these districts. The sources described the defendant as a dangerous element threatening the national and cultural property of Yemen. Before the current charges were brought against him, he had an existing criminal record for smuggling Yemeni artifacts.
The Archeological Authority has sent an official letter to the Ministry of the Interior requesting a notice be sent to all security units and security checkpoints to ban Jad Allah from leaving Sana'a in a bid to help enforce the verdict putting him under house arrest. The Criminal Court issued this verdict in a session dated February 2, 2007. The Archeological Authority demanded that Jad Allah should be banned from leaving Sana'a until a final verdict is issued against him in the matter of smuggling Yemeni artifacts.
Jad Allah, who was arrested in 2005, was found with 872 Yemeni artifacts in his home, including ancient manuscripts, and stone, bronze pieces. The Preliminary Court, presided over by Judge Abdul-Malk al-Marwani fined him only YR10, 000 and ordered the Archeological Authority to pay the value of the seized artifacts found with him.
During that same year, the Archeology Prosecutor’s Office filed an appeal and expressed its disappointment over the lenient verdicts the courts has issued against artifact smugglers. In fact, the office considers the verdict an encouragement to trade in Yemeni artifacts, and argues that lenient punishments will only increase the number of crimes. The Protection of Archeology Law Number 8, passed in 1997, states that artifact traders must be sentenced to at least two years in jail and smugglers not less than 5 years.
Jad Allah is facing charges from a number of courts in Yemen, including the criminal branch of the Capital Appeals court, the Office of the Prosecution in Mareb governorate, and from the Aden Prosecutors Office. The Archeology Prosecutor’s Office has also claimed that Jad Allah was expelled from Yemen by security authorities in 1999 when it was discovered that he was involved in smuggling rare Yemeni artifacts from the district of Hareeb in Mareb in 1996. Jad Allah then reentered Yemen illegally in 2002.
During the first session of Jad Allah’s trial in mid-May 2005, the court was presented with the gold artifacts that had been seized from him. Yemeni archeological expert, Hisham al-Thawr claims; "the defendant takes the ancient Himiriate gold and re-mould it into other shapes," and he considers this an intentional distortion of Yemen's archeology.
In May 2007, a report conducted by experts from the Archeology Department in Sana'a University College of Art revealed that the seized objects found with Jad Allah were taken from an excavated graveyard, and had been overlooked in the initial exploration. Using the evidence of the Mosand transcription, some of the seized pieces can be dated to Yemen’s pre-Islamic period.
Jad Allah is considered the second most notorious suspect standing before Yemeni Judicial Authorities after his two Yemeni associates, Amin al-Ba'adani and Mohammed Shamleh. These men also stand charged of trading and smuggling Yemeni artifacts. The campaign launched by the Yemeni government in 2005 to combat archeological smuggling and trading has so far revealed more than 23 people involved in these crimes- most of them from Arab countries.
Yemeni security forces arrested Jad Allah after an interview with a Belgian archeological researcher, originally from Syria, named Muneer Arbash was published on a Yemeni website. The interview mentions the name of Jad Allah and said that security forces were aware of Jad Allah’s activities. During one of his hearings in the West Capital Court, Jad Allah mentioned the name of a French woman who possesses many Yemeni artifacts which are recorded as her personal belongings.
Another French suspect named Yves Lebourgeois was tried on charges of theft and attempted smuggling for stealing another set of priceless Yemeni artifacts. He was caught in May at Sana’a Airport carrying 12 Yemeni artifacts, though he was released and acquitted.
The Archeology Prosecution Office has reviewed around 60 cases of antique smuggling in the past 3 years. Some of these were major crimes, involving elaborate and well planned operations. On May 11, security forces at Sana’a airport apprehended a Canadian citizen with nearly 200 different artifacts. Officials at the airport have tightened security measures aimed at detecting passengers attempting to smuggle such objects out of the country.
With this alarming increase in artifact smuggling in Yemen, the Archeological Authority announced recently that it will carry out an archeological survey in the governorate of al-Jawf. Al-Jawf is rich in artifacts and archeological sites, and this survey will be undertaken as a precautionary measure to reduce the number of acts of smuggling. The survey will record, document, and photograph all archeological sites in the governorate.
Yemeni artifacts are mostly found in remote areas, which make them easy prey for archeological brokers and traders inside and outside of the country. Many locals excavate archeological sites themselves, especially in Mareb and al-Jawf due to the absence of security at these sites. When something thought to be of value is found ,it is generally put up for sale.
Intellectuals and media figures have called for the establishment of a court that specializes in archeological crimes. They have also urged members of the bodies responsible for the protection of antiquities to impose disciplinary action against state officials, civilian or military, involved in archeology-related crimes.
A number of symposiums were held this year and participants recommended reviewing all pending issues related to archeology that are still under judicial proceedings. They said that the government must give the issue of Yemen’s archeology protection a status of permanent priority. It is also urgent to repatriate all stolen antiquities outside of the country through internationally recognized means.
The Ministry’s of Culture, Tourism and Information, local administrations, and the educational and civil society organizations which participated in the forums have commissioned proposals for amendments to some articles of the Protection of Archeology Law. The protection law, issued in 1994 and amended in 1997, as well as the new amendments should be submitted to the government for approval as soon as possible. The amendments contain clauses making those convicted of tampering with archeological sites or smuggling and trading in stolen artifacts guilty of serious crimes. “Such crimes classified as serious crimes, require physically harsh and deterrent punishment.”
The participants called for the establishment of colleges of Archeology and Tourism in the provinces of Mareb and Hadhramout to attract people from the two provinces to study and train in archaeology and preservation. The establishment of the two colleges aims to raise younger generations’ awareness of historical monuments and cultural heritage of Yemen. They also requested the inclusion in the curricula of primary and secondary schools courses stressing the importance of Yemeni archeology, taking into account the different age levels.
They also demanded primary education curricula on Yemeni archaeology, the inclusion of archaeology in the history curriculum at all Yemeni universities, and the establishment of archaeological trips for students from grade schools and universities.
The forum’s recommendations stressed the need for media organizations, governmental press institutions and newspapers to make programs and activities aimed at sensitizing the community about the importance of archeology, cultural heritage and the history of Yemen. This is in order to promote and define them to the world, and expose the damage caused by crimes against antiquities.
These are priceless antiques, and we must work to identify and classify these artifacts in Yemen and account for them abroad, working to recover them according to international laws and norms. The Yemeni government must provide the appropriate material, scientific and human resources, to conduct exploration and research for discovering as much as possible from Yemeni civilization and creativity.
*Additional reporting done by Jamil al-J’adabi.
