Editors Hisham, Mohammed and Hani Bashraheel Arrested and at Risk of Torture: Amnesty International
Where is US Ambassador Seche, who visited the Bashraheels previously when they were under house arrest? Al Ayyam under the bus in exchange for Saleh’s pretense of cooperation against al Qaeda. And its a poor pretense at that. The US will never diminish the al Qaeda threat from Yemen as long as the adminstration keeps siding with the wrong people (thieves and killers) and keeps sacrificing “those seeking justice” who Obama mistakenly says we support. More here.
URGENT ACTION
another son of Hisham Bashraheel arrested
Another son of al-Ayyam editor-in-chief Hisham Bashraheel is now known to have been detained after a demonstration about action taken by the authorities against the newspaper. Like his father and brother, he is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.
Muhammad Bashraheel is now known to have been arrested on 5 January, the day before his father Hisham Bashraheel and brother Hani Bashraheel were detained. The three are being held at the Criminal Investigation Department in Aden. All of them were allowed to see their families and lawyers today, having apparently been denied access to them before. It is unclear whether the three men will be allowed regular contact with them. They may be prisoners of conscience, held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
The three men had been taking part in a sit-in protest at the newspaper’s offices in the southern city of Aden. The protest began on 4 January to mark eight months since the authorities effectively banned them from printing and distributing copies of al-Ayyam. The security forces opened fire on the protestors on 4 January and the newspaper’s security guards returned fire: one member of the security forces was killed and three wounded; one security guard was killed and three wounded.
The authorities confiscated every copy of al-Ayyam from street news stands and distribution points in the capital Sana’a and southern cities on 30 April 2009, taking similar action against six other newspapers on 4 May, when the offices of al-Ayyam were also then blockaded by the security forces to prevent copies of the newspaper from being distributed. Members of the security forces were then stationed outside al-Ayyam until 6 January when security forces raided its offices and confiscated computers. On 5 May the government announced that they would be banning all newspapers which they considered had expressed support for the secession of the south of the country in coverage of protests in the region. Despite this, al-Ayyam published some news on its website during 2009.
