Provincial website editor freed after 11 days in detention

Reporters Without Borders welcomes today’s release of Fouad Rashid, a journalist based in the eastern city of Al-Mukalla, but deplores the arbitrary nature of his arrest on the street on 10 January and his detention for the past 11 days at the headquarters of the city’s plain-clothes police. Now the editor of the Arabic-language news website Al-Mukalla Press, Rachid used to be a member of the staff of the newspaper Al-Massila and to write for the newspaper 26 September. He was previously arrested in May 2009 (http://en.rsf.org/yemen-major-crackdown-on-independent-05-05-2009,32909.html) and was held without trial for a year before finally being released on the justice minister’s orders (http://en.rsf.org/yemen-presidential-pardon-on-20th-25-05-2010,37555.html). -------------- 12.01.2011 - News website editor arrested arbitrarily in eastern city Reporters Without Borders firmly condemns journalist Fouad Rashid’s arbitrary arrest in Al-Mukalla, a city 500 km east of Sanaa that is the capital of Hadramaut province, and calls for his immediate release. The editor of the Arabic-language news website Al-Mukalla Press, Rashid was arrested on the street on the morning of 10 January and was taken to the headquarters of the city’s plain-clothes police. Reporters Without Borders has learned that the head of the Al-Mukalla journalists’ union was able to talk with him for nearly two hours on the evening of 10 January. Born in 1970, Rashid used to be a member of the staff of the newspaper Al-Massila and to write for the newspaper 26 September before founding Al-Mukalla Press, which has regularly covered the unrest in the south of the country. He was previously arrested on 4 May 2009 (http://en.rsf.org/yemen-major-crackdown-on-independent-05-05-2009,32909.html) and was held without trial for more than a year, finally being released on the justice minister’s orders on 26 May 2010 (http://en.rsf.org/yemen-presidential-pardon-on-20th-25-05-2010,37555.html). Ilah Haydar Shae, a journalist who was arrested on 16 August 2010, is meanwhile still in solitary confinement in an intelligence service prison in Sanaa, where he has refused to attend several recent hearings before a special state security court because he disputes its legality. Shae is also challenging the legality of his arrest in August and a previous arrest on 11 July, insisting those response for these arrests, which he regards as cases of “forced disappearance,” are the ones who should be prosecuted (more information: http://en.rsf.org/yemen-fourth-hearing-in-detained-24-11-2010,38885.html).