(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has condemned a one-year prison sentence against the editor-in-chief of the weekly “al Rai al-Aam”, and a six-month suspension of the paper for publishing the controversial Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. The paper’s editor, Kamal Alufi, was found guilty by a Sanaa court of “damaging the Islamic faith” and […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has condemned a one-year prison sentence against the editor-in-chief of the weekly “al Rai al-Aam”, and a six-month suspension of the paper for publishing the controversial Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.
The paper’s editor, Kamal Alufi, was found guilty by a Sanaa court of “damaging the Islamic faith” and “denigrating a monotheist religion or humanitarian belief.” He also faces a six-month writing ban.
Alufi was taken into custody after sentencing on 25 November 2006, but was freed two hours later on the orders of the public prosecutor, General Abdallah Al Olfi, after the proceedings were declared “illegal”. He will remain at liberty until the appeal hearing.
“It is worrying that the Yemeni authorities continue to hound journalists in this case, which has stopped making headlines elsewhere,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said.
“The four journalists facing charges simply raised in their respective papers the worldwide reactions which the cartoons had provoked. It seems that the authorities are using this case to settle scores with the press,” it added.
“Since President Ali Abdallah Saleh has claimed on several occasions to oppose the criminalisation of press offences, we urge him to take responsibility for protecting the press by condemning the unfairness of the trials of editors of the three Yemeni newspapers who reprinted the controversial cartoons.”
In a separate case, the editor-in-chief of independent weekly “al-Hurraya”, Adel Halima Aram Sabre, journalist Yahiya al Abed and editor-in-chief of the “Yemen Observer” Mohammed al Asabi face the same charges but are being tried separately. The three spent two weeks in custody in February. Their trials are continuing.
