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 Sana’a. 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 government’s 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 Sana’a, during which delegation representatives attended one of Mr Shae's hearings and received reports that the journalist had been tortured whilst in military detention.

The full letter read:

“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.”

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 http://www.wan-ifra.org or through the WAN-IFRA Magazine at http://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