Reporters Without Borders urges dropping of case against journalist accused of "spreading false news"

Reporters Without Borders has called on Judge Mohammad Ismail Adbel Kader of the Sanaa court to drop charges against journalist Said Thabet Said, who is accused of "spreading false news damaging to public interest and security." Said is due to make a second court appearance on 10 March and is at risk of a sentence of up to one year in prison and a fine of the equivalent of around 100 dollars. Police arrested Said, correspondent for the London-based Al-Qods-Press news agency and elected member of the board of the Yemeni journalists' union, in Sanaa on 5 March. He was accused by the security services of reporting that the son of President Ali Abdallah Saleh - who is head of the Republican Guard and the Special Forces - had been the target of a murder attempt. The report was immediately denied by the authorities and dismissed as "a false allegation circulated to harm Yemen". The journalist was held for almost 72 hours until 8 March when he was taken before a judge who ordered his release on bail. The trial will resume on 10 March. "The arrest of a journalist and his detention for 72 hours as if he were a criminal are serious and unacceptable violations of press freedom," said the international press freedom organisation. "Now is the time to put right these mistakes and drop all charges against this journalist and also to offer assurances to the rest of the profession which will have been intimidated by the use of such methods. The press law should also be amended in consultation with journalists' professional organisations to abolish prison terms for press offences," Reporters Without Borders added. The organisation pointed out that it was the second arrest of a journalist in Yemen in less than a month. On 24 February, Najeeb Yabli of the daily Al-Ayyam, was questioned for around 12 hours by the Aden political security services in the south of the country, for writing that the politics of the Yemeni president and that of the United States were only two sides of the same coin.