August 21, 2008 (MENASSAT) - After giving an interview from his jail cell last week in the Qatari newspaper Al-Arab, Yemeni dissident journalist Abdelkarim Al-Khaiwani has said he has received threats from prison staff.

The interview was picked up by several news sites, including MENASSAT. In the days since the interview, Al-Khaiwani said prison authorities threatened him with punishment similar to what he received in 2004, when he claims a convicted murderer tried to assassinate him in jail.

Khaiwani has been detained for the past four months at the Central Prison directorate in the Yemeni capital Sana'a. During this time, Khaiwani jas said he has been denied medical treatment for his diabetic condition.

Family sources have told MENASSAT in a phone call that they were prevented from visiting him or supplying him with medicines, and that for the past ten days they have been completely barred from seeing or speaking to him. Activists who have visited Al-Khaiwani this week said that he was warned not to give any more interviews or leak any more writing to the press or face death.

According to Al-Khaiwani, eight guards stormed his cell and searched it after the interview he gave was published in Al-Arab. He also claims prison staff threw a rat into his cell, and threatened to keep him locked up with the rodent.

According to one Yemeni news site, the prison's warden, Mathar Naji, said Al-Khaiwani would be barred from giving anymore interviews in jail.