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Militia of Houthis and ousted president abducts Journalist Ajlan

Militia of Houthis and ousted president abducts Journalist Ajlan

Al Masdar Media Foundation has called on the militia of Houthi group and ousted president Saleh to immediately release the fellow journalist Yusuf Ajlan who was kidnapped from outside his home on October 15.

Al Masdar has held the militia fully responsible for his safety, renewing its demand for the release of the co-worker Tawfiq Al Mansouri, the journalist director at Al Masdar Media Foundation, who has been detained by the militia for almost a year and a half.

In a press release on abduction of Ajlan, Al Masdar has explained that the former editor at the news site of Almasdaronline stopped working for it after the storming of the foundation’s office by the militia on March 2015, and decided to quit the journalistic work once he realized that the surrounding environment had been no longer suitable to continue.

“Nevertheless, this did not work with the militia that had been wary of every Yemeni citizen living at any area under its control but owing full allegiance to it.”

According the press release, strenuous attempts to release them have not stopped for the past period and relatives are still trying to persuade Houthi leaders to do that, and these endeavors, however, have not borne any fruits despite the passage of over a month since has been kidnapped.

Al Masdar Foundation pointed out to the deliberate insistence of Houthis, which controls the capital Sanaa and other parts of the country, on threatening every abductee with terrorism charges as an attempt to scare whoever calls for the release.

According to information of Al Masdar’s editorial board, the colleague Yusuf Ajlan has been transferred from the prison of Criminal Investigation Department where has was detained after abducting in Yemen’s militia-controlled capital, Sanaa, to a prison in Al Thawrah district in Nuqum area.

The statement called on unions and organizations concerned with freedom of press and public freedoms to demonstrate solidarity with Ajlan and all colleagues kidnapped or forcibly disappeared in jails of the putschists in Sanaa and exert pressure for their release.

The editorial board expressed the confidence that international organizations and bodies, particularly the United Nations, are able to release the journalists just like what happened with a number of US citizens who, thanks to international pressure, were released after they had been held by the Houthi militia.

The foundation concluded by noting that it has faced many violations by the coup militia, including breaking into office, confiscating property, stopping daily newspaper, repeatedly blocking website and kidnapping of website’s editors and technicians.

Despite all of that, it emphasized, Al Masdar will keep going on according to the professional track it has adopted since the beginning.

It Journalists Without Chains (WJWC) on Monday condemned the kidnapping of Yusuf Ajlan, former editor of Al MASDAR-online news site, in front of his home in the capital Sana'a on October 15 by the militia of Houthi group and ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

As WJWC calls for immediate release of the journalist, it reiterates its demand for the immediate release of all detained journalists in the prisons of the militias, who have been held for nearly a year and a half.

The organization calls on both local and global organizations concerned with freedom of opinion and expression to condemn the arrests waged by the militias against journalists as well as invites these organizations to exert pressure in order to release the detainees.

 

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