Popular feelings inflamedAl-Wasat editor abducted, and brutally beaten [Archives:2005/871/Front Page]
Yasser Mohammed Al-Mayyasi
SANA'A (August 25)- Hundreds of Journalists staged a sit-in yesterday at the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS) and expressed solidarity with Jamal Amer, Editor-in-Chief of al-Wasat weekly who was abducted on the 23rd by a group of armed men in a military vehicle.
The chief editor of the independent newspaper was grabbed and bundled into a military plate-numbered vehicle while returning home after work at the newspaper, taken to an unknown place, beaten and threatened. It is thought this was in relation to his criticism of corruption and corrupt individuals in the government.
“A group of armed men on board a vehicle with a military plate number waited for me near my house; when I arrived, they ordered me to go with them and threw me into their vehicle”, Jamal Amer said in a statement to the Yemen Times. “The attackers blindfolded me, bound my hands and bundled me into another car some time later after moving from the place of the incident.”
“I was then taken to a remote area outside the capital and threatened to be thrown from the peak of a mountain,” the victim added. “The merciless assailants hit me badly and fired shots in order to terrorize me”
Amer alleged the abductor's mocked his speech and said they would behead him, and put his head in one place and his corpse in another. They told him he was warned to stop criticizing government officials. Specific criticism of nepotism in a report published last week detailed a list of kids of a number of prominent officials given scholarships to study abroad allegedly without merit.
Amer said the attackers accused him of receiving financial support from the U.S. and the Kuwaiti embassies and of having links to a group of U.S. secret agents.
The perpetrators told the victim that his newspaper could criticize the government without naming any officials. One of them threatened to cut off his tongue if he dares write against government officials.
Al-Wasat Chief Editor said the abductors told him that nobody can help alleviate his suffering and punishment, even officials at the YJS.
Mahboob Ali, Chief of the YJS agreed that what Jamal Amer was subjected to is a barbaric act of brutality and shows that lives of journalists in Yemen are at risk of oppression. Such malpractice, he added, violates the Yemeni constitution, results in greater obstacles for the profession and raises concern and fear among journalists.
“Any violation of the press freedom is a breach of Yemeni press laws and contradicts the democratic values pursued in a democratic country,” Mahboob was quoted saying.
The YJS issued a statement urging the Ministry of Interior to issue an arrest warrant for the attackers and bring them to court. No official denounciation was made and no action was taken by the authorities at the time of going to the press.
Hamdi al-Bukari, an official at the YJS said that a meeting of solidarity with Jamal Amer will be held today to denounce the escalating attacks against journalists.
Al-Wasat recently published a series of articles criticizing the government's policies and revealing corruption and money embezzlements in different ministries.
Over the last few months, some Yemeni journalists were attacked, others tried and investigated for their reporting, and some newspapers were shut down by the authorities without legal procedures.
Prior to the attack on Jamal Amer, Haje' al-Jihafi, al-Nihar Chief Editor was injured badly in a booby-trapped envelope machinated and sent to him by some malicious elements, and some of al-Thawrah Daily reporters were attacked while in duty in al-Dhal'e Governorate.
Local and international observers of the situation of Yemeni journalism view the recent attacks as a serious backtrack of the regime's pledges to liberate the country and allow freedom of expression to flourish. They believe those attacks will have negative effect on the reputation of the government before the international human rights organizations.
Numerous human rights organizations and parties interested in the freedom of the press in Yemen have expressed concern over the maltreatment of Yemeni journalists.
Observers expect the coming couple of days to witness an unprecedented number of rushed and legal trials against journalists in a move, according to legal experts, to curb other opposition newspapers from criticizing the regime. It is also due to the lack of independence of the judicial authority, which is directly controlled by the government and headed by the President.
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