Alsahwa Net- Yemeni human rights activist and journalists demanded the international community to swiftly move at saving the detained journalists from death.
In a virtual symposium, the human rights defenders and journalists affirmed the need for organizing a media campaign to demand release of the detained journalists in the Houthis-run prisons.
Four detained journalists were sentenced to death by a Houthis-run court in Sana’a on 11 April following five-year detention.
Director of 8 March Block for Yemeni Women, Wesam Basindwa, said that a blacklist must be issued on abusers of the press freedom and journalists’ rights.
She said that this list is to include individuals or entities that abuse and harass media oulrts and media workers.
She suggested that Leader of the Houthis militia, Abdulmalik Al-Houthis be enlisted on top of the blacklist.
Al-Houthi has publicly incited against journalists and said that they “pose a threat on his role much than mercenaries.”
Several journalists remain in detention by the Houthis since they sized control of the capital Sana’a in late September 2014.
Intimidation against journalists in the Houthis-held territory increased following incitement by the Houthis’ leader against the journalists.
Head of the Training and Qualifying Committee of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS), Nabil Al-Asaidi, said that journalists in the Houthis-held areas, have been vulnerable to several forms of intimidation including arrests, forcible disappearance, murder, death sentencing, and torture.
He said that the recent death sentencing against the four detained journalists is illegal as it was ruled by an armed group that does not respect laws and the constitution.
For her part, Mayada Sallam, trainer of journalists’ safety, said that Yemen has become of one of the most dangerous places for journalists’ safety.
Abdullah Al-Monaifi, a former detained journalist in the Houthis-run prison spoke about his torture by the Houthis militants during his imprisonment.
Al-Monaifi was abducted from the street in Dhamar city and was forcibly disappeared for two years and one month.
“The Houthis threatened abduction of my kids and placing me at military sites to be a direct target for the Saudi-led aerial bombing,” Al-Monaifi said.