His Excellency President Ali Abdullah Saleh
Sana’a, Republic of Yemen

24 January 2011

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries, to express our serious concern at the jailing of journalist Abdul Ilah Hayder Shae.

According to reports, on 18 January the Specialized Criminal Court in Sana’a sentenced Mr Shae, a reporter for the Saba news agency, to five years in jail followed by a two-year ban on leaving the capital for "belonging to an illegal armed organization" and "recruiting young people, including foreigners, to [Al-Qaeda] by communicating with them via the Internet". He was also accused of photographing security agency buildings and embassies, advising US-based radical cleric Anwar Al-Awlaqi, and writing for Al-Qaeda’s online magazine.

Mr Shae, who has been held in solitary confinement since his arrest last August, often reported on unrest in the south of the country and on Islamist groups, including Al-Qaeda, in the Arabian Peninsula. He was also a frequent critic of the government’s policies on the Al-Jazeera network, and we are concerned that he has been prosecuted for his critical opinions.

Mr Shae has refused to accept the legality of the Specialized Criminal Court and has refused to file an appeal. There have been reports that Mr Shae has been tortured in detention.

The sentencing of Mr Shae comes two months after WAN-IFRA led an international delegation to Yemen from 7 to 11 November 2010, along with partner media and human rights organisations Article XIX, the International Federation of Journalists and International Media Support. During the mission, delegation representatives attended one of Mr Shae's hearings and called on Your Excellency to immediately release him.

We respectfully remind you that the jailing of Mr Shae for carrying out his professional duties violates numerous international conventions, including Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that states: 'Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers'.

We call on you to take all necessary steps to ensure that Mr Shae is immediately released and all that charges against him are lifted. We ask you to ensure that in future your country fully respects international standards of press freedom.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin O’Reilly
President
World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers

Xavier Vidal-Folch
President
World Editors Forum

WAN-IFRA is the global organization for the world’s newspapers and news publishers, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries.