YEMEN: Editor abducted

23 September 2009

RAN 50/09

The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN is gravely concerned for the safety of editor Muhammad al-Maqalih, who was reportedly abducted from a Sana'a street on 17 September 2009, apparently by a group of plainclothes security agents. There are fears that he is detained for his critical writings, and is at risk of ill-treatment. International PEN calls upon the Yemeni authorities to clarify Muhammed al-Maqalih's whereabouts, and to release him immediately and unconditionally if he is held in violation of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Yemen is a signatory.

Al Maqaleh, editor for the opposition Socialist Party's website, Al Eshteraki, was abducted following the publication of a report in al Eshteraki on alleged Yemeni military air strikes targeting civilians in the Sa'da Insurgency, which has been ongoing in the north west of the country since June 2004. Amnesty International gives the following information:

Muhammad al-Maqalih, a 49-year-old father of seven children, was abducted from a street in Sana'a at 11pm on 17 September. Eyewitnesses told his family that he was taken by a group of men who arrived in a white minibus, which had its licence plates obscured. The men took Muhammad al-Maqalih, and deflated one of the tyres on his car, which was nearby. There has been no news of Muhammad al-Maqalih since.

Muhammad al-Maqalih is a journalist and a member of the Yemeni Socialist Party. Human rights activists in Yemen suspect that he may have been abducted by plain-clothes security forces personnel because of his criticism of the government, in particular with regards to the clashes between the army and followers of a Shi'a Muslim cleric in Sa'da. His comments criticizing the army's killing of civilians were published on the Yemeni Socialist Party's website (http://www.aleshteraki.net).

Abduction of political opponents and critics of the state by security agents is a known practice in Yemen, particularly during political crises such as the clashes in Sa'da. Those abducted are often tortured or otherwise ill-treated.

Mohammed al Maqaleh was previouosly detained for several months in 2007 for "disrespecting the judiciary" after he laughed during the trial of award winning journalist, Abdulkarim al Khaiwani, who was sentenced to six years in prison in June 2008 for publishing articles critical of the government's fight with rebels in Sa'da. Al-Khaiwani was a main case of International PEN, and was amnestied in September 2008.