Second journalist in a month arrested

  Reporters Without Borders called today for the immediate release of Yemeni journalist Ibrahim Hussen, arrested on 21 June by the country's secret police after criticising the government. "Once again, the Yemeni authorities are using strong-arm tactics to intimidate the opposition press, especially when they denounce corruption," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard in a letter to interior minister Rashad al-Alimi. "This is the second journalist arrested in Yemen in the past month." Ménard also called for the release of journalist Abdulrahmin Mohsen, of the daily Al-Thawri, organ of the Socialist Party, who was arrested on 28 May. He noted that three journalists had been arrested in Yemen over the past year. Hussen, who worked for several local publications, including Al-Thawri, was arrested in Sanaa by plainclothes police at the offices of the opposition Yemeni Unionist Party (an alliance between the Socialist and Communist parties). The weekly Yemen Times said he was forcibly taken to secret police headquarters. His arrest may be linked with articles he has written criticising a government report on human rights and accusing the authorities of corruption. Officials refused to comment on his arrest. Hussen, along with Mohsen and Khaled Salman, Al-Thawri's managing editor, were convicted on 4 June of "religious sedition" and "harming national unity" and given five-month suspended prison sentences, as a result of articles the paper published last February. The three men had appealed against the conviction. The interior ministry has refused to give any details about where Mohsen is being held or why. He is thought to have been arrested for writing articles about government corruption, human rights violations and the wave of arrests in Yemen after the 11 September attacks in the United States.