Two journalists jailed and banned from writing for insulting President Saleh

Sana’a: Two Yemeni journalists have been sentenced to 1-2 years in prison and banned from writing for insulting the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Chaired by Judge Mansour Shayeh, the special press court sentenced the Yemeni-American journalist Munair Al Mawri, based in the US, to two years in prison and banned him from writing indefinitely.

Al Mawri wrote an article earlier this year in the independent weekly Al Masdar under the title "The mass destructive weapons" which was considered offensive to President Saleh.

The court also handed down a one year suspended jail sentence to the journalist Sameer Jubran, editor-in-chief of iAl Masdar.

He has been banned from writing and running his paper for the same period.

Jubran, who appeared in the court Saturday, asked for an appeal and said he would appoint another colleague to run Al Masdar during the period of his punishment.

After pronouncing the verdict, Jubran said he expected such a verdict, describing it as stiff and political.

The secretary general of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, Marwan Dammaj, said the verdict was a shock to all journalists.

Dammaj called the rights group to condemn such verdicts.

The deputy minister of legal affairs, Mamoon Al Shami, said the verdict was fair, and President Saleh set a good example for other officials by resorting to the judiciary.

The ministry of legal affairs filed the suite case against the paper for the President Saleh.