Al-Mataani was arrested on a number of charges stemming from his attempts to form an independent journalists’ union to compete with the government-recognized Journalists’ Syndicate. Al-Mataani was charged with forming a syndicate without approval, collecting money from members, and misrepresenting himself as a journalist. On June 19, he was sentenced to serve three and a half years in prison. It was unclear whether al-Mataani was also convicted on the separate charge of publishing the union’s weekly newspaper, Sahebat al Gallala, without a license By the end of December 2000, CPJ was unable to confirm if al-Mataani was still in prison.
