Al-Ayyam reporter gets 14-month jail term

Reporters Without Borders reiterates its condemnation of the government’s three-month-old persecution of the daily Al-Ayyam, which rose another notch yesterday when a court in Karsh (southeast of Sanaa) imposed a 14-month jail sentence on Anis Ahmed Mansour Hamida, an Al-Ayyam reporter based in Aden, on charges of “separatism” and “attacking national unity.” “This jail sentence is part of a major campaign by the authorities against Al-Ayyam and its journalists,” Reporters Without Borders said. “After applying indirect censorship, the authorities have gone to a new level in their harassment of this independent publication. The sentence constitutes another violation of free expression by Yemen.” Aged 31, Hamida has been an Al-Ayyam reporter in Aden since 2004. After initially charging him in connection with this stories, the court changed the charges and accused him of “criminal actions.” At a hearing that preceded the issuing of the verdict and sentence, the public prosecutor claimed that a CD constituted “material evidence” of Hamida’s participation in meetings organised by the Peaceful Movement of the South. “This was clearly a political trial,” Hamida as he left the court, before being led away to prison. “The judge just followed the instructions issued by the authorities.” Union of Yemeni Journalists secretary-general Marwan Damaj said: “Yemen is witnessing one of the darkest developments in press freedom since 1990.” Since the start of May, distribution of Al-Ayyam has been obstructed (http://www.rsf.org/Major-crackdown-on-independent.html) and its headquarters in Aden have been fired on by the army (http://www.rsf.org/Soldiers-fire-on-Aden-based.html).