The Journalists Syndicate and Amnesty International renew their demand for the Transitional Council to release journalist “Ahmed Maher”

On Tuesday, the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate and Amnesty International called for the release of journalist Ahmed Maher, who is detained in the prisons of the UAE-backed transitional forces in the interim capital, Aden, for the third year in a row.

The Journalists Syndicate said in a statement: “Today marks the second anniversary of the arrest of journalist Ahmed Maher by elements affiliated with the Transitional Council in Aden, a partner in the legitimate government, and the colleague has been detained since August 6, 2022, in difficult and harsh conditions after a trial that lacked the most basic rights and the minimum fair conditions.”

The union explained that the journalist “Maher” was subjected during the past two years to a horrific series of violations that began with his kidnapping, disappearance, and torture, and then forcing him to confess in a video under pressure and coercion to carrying out actions that he did not perform, leading to depriving him of his right to a fair trial and unjustly sentencing him to four years in prison and disenfranchising him. His family and his lawyer removed the case file to transfer it to the Court of Appeal.

The Journalists Syndicate renewed its condemnation of the exceptional punitive measures in the case of Ahmed Maher, demanding the cancellation of the sentence issued against him, the speedy release of him, and the opening of a fair investigation into all the violations he was subjected to.

The union held the government and security services controlling Aden Governorate fully responsible for the intimidation, which is a message of intimidation to all journalists and opinion holders.

The Syndicate called on all journalists and all organizations concerned with freedom of opinion and expression, most notably the International Federation of Journalists and the Union of Arab Journalists, to stand in solidarity with “Maher” and press for his release, hold the perpetrators accountable, and stop terrorizing journalists and trying to silence them.

The union reminded of the difficult conditions experienced by all the kidnapped journalists, as there are still 6 other detainees held by various parties, including 4 by the Houthi group. They are the hidden journalist (Wahid Al-Sufi, the employee of the Saba News Agency, Nabil Al-Sadawi, the photographer at the Yemen Digital Agency, Abdullah Al-Nabhani, and the media activist Muhammad Al-Nabhi. ).

The Qaba indicated the presence of another journalist, in addition to journalist Ahmed Maher, with the Transitional Council, which is a partner in the internationally recognized government, namely (Nasih Shak), in addition to the journalist who was forcibly hidden by Al-Qaeda in Hadhramaut since October 2015 AD, Muhammad Qaid Al-Muqri.

In a related development, Amnesty International called on Tuesday, the UAE-backed STC militia, to quickly release journalist Ahmed Maher, release him, and cancel his conviction and sentence that was issued against him after an “unfair trial.”

The organization said, in a statement, on the ".

The organization renewed its call on the STC militia to "annull Maher's conviction and the sentence that was issued against him after an unfair trial. Unless he is tried on accusation of committing internationally recognized crimes within the framework of procedures that meet international standards for a fair trial, he must be released immediately."