A Yemenite newspaper editor was kidnapped and beaten up by unknown attackers on Tuesday for writing about corruption in the government, he told the authorities.
Jamal ‘Amir, editor in chief of the Yemenite independent weekly Al-Wasat said armed men blindfolded him, pushed him into a vehicle and took him to a remote location near the capital ‘Sana.
They beat him and threatened to cut off his tongue or to kill him and behead him, the London-based Al-Hayyat reported. He was released more than four hours later.
Al-Wasat previously published articles criticizing President ‘Ali ‘Abdallah ‘Salih’s government about the way it handled a recent crisis over increasing fuel prices. More than 20 people were killed in subsequent riots after subsidies for petroleum products were cut, pushing the government to reverse the decision.
Al-Hayyat added that the paper published a list of children of senior officials who are studying in the United States, the United Kingdom and Malaysia, with large oil companies footing the bills.
‘Amir said the assailants interrogated him about information sources, the newspaper’s writers and sources of funding. He said they accused him of working for a group of American collaborators.
Reporters Without Borders ranks Yemen’s press freedom as a “difficult situation.”
“Yemeni journalists are personally and legally harassed and threatened to discourage them from reporting on sensitive topics such as corruption, human rights violations and links with the United States in its fight against terrorism,” the organization says.
Yemen, a country of about 19 million people, is located south of Saudi Arabia. Nearly half of Yemen’s population lives beneath the poverty line and one in five is undernourished, according to World Bank figures.