Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, 1 February 2011
For immediate release

Abdul Ilah Hayder Shae, a reporter with the Saba news agency, was convicted on 18 January of "belonging to an illegal armed organisation" and "recruiting young people, including foreigners, to Al-Qaeda" by the Specialized Criminal Court in Sana¹a. Mr Shae was sentenced to five years in jail followed by a two-year ban on leaving the capital.

"We are seriously concerned that Mr Shae is being persecuted for his critical opinions," WAN-IFRA said in a statement. "The jailing of Mr Shae for carrying out his professional duties violates numerous international conventions, including , including Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

Mr Shae, who has been held in solitary confinement since his arrest in August 2010, regularly 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 government¹s policies on the Al-Jazeera network.

Mr Shae has refused to accept the legality of the Court and is refusing to file an appeal. His sentencing comes two months after WAN-IFRA led an international delegation to Sana¹a, during which delegation representatives attended one of Mr Shae's hearings and received reports that the journalist had been tortured whilst in military detention.

WAN-IFRA, based in Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, with subsidiaries in Singapore, India, Spain, France and Sweden, is the global organisation of the world's newspapers and news publishers. It represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries. The organisation was created by the merger of the World Association of Newspapers and IFRA, the research and service organisation for the news publishing industry.

Learn more about WAN-IFRA at www.wan-ifra.org or through the WAN-IFRA Magazine at www.wan-ifra.org/magazine

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications and Public Affairs, WAN-IFRA, 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: larry.kilman@wan-ifra.org