Two years after his kidnapping, the family of journalist Ahmed Maher condemns the continued detention of their son and the authorities’ disregard for his case

The family of journalist Ahmed Maher, who is being held in the prisons of the UAE-backed Transitional Council in the interim capital Aden (southern Yemen), condemned in the strongest terms the continued illegal detention of their son for more than two years.

In a statement issued to mark two years since his kidnapping, the family of journalist Ahmed Maher denounced the Presidential Council and the judicial authorities in Aden for ignoring their demands to appeal the “unjust and unfair” ruling issued by the Criminal Court against their son.

The family's statement stressed that "the trial of their son or the procedures taken against him clearly violate the articles of the law related to the case and completely confiscated the rights of defense, which contradicts the Code of Criminal Procedure."

The statement noted that journalist Maher had appealed the ruling issued against him two and a half months ago, expressing surprise at the failure to set a session to consider the serious violations he was subjected to during the stages of his kidnapping until the unjust ruling was issued against him.

The family stressed the need to respect the articles of the law and its explicit texts that preserved the rights of defense and not to waste the written defenses and requests submitted by their son, which were unfortunately ignored by the Criminal Court of First Instance, Aden. They expressed their hope that the Criminal Court of Appeal, Aden, would take them into consideration as they are public order defenses and should have ruled on them before entering into the criminal case.

The family expressed its regret "for the Presidential Leadership Council, the Supreme Judicial Council, the Supreme Court, and the Judicial Inspection and Control Department's disregard for their son's well-known case, which is one of the public opinion issues that must be resolved out of respect for the law, the people, and international and local organizations that demand justice."

She renewed her demands for a fair trial for her son as an exception, to preserve full rights of defense, to consider the requests, pleas and cases filed by her son against those who fabricated this case, and to set consecutive sessions to decide the case in accordance with Sharia and the law.

The family called on the Journalists Syndicate, international organizations, and human rights civil society organizations to continue following up on their son’s case and to shed light on the violations he was subjected to since his kidnapping, through the course of his trial, and until the verdict was issued against him.

On May 28, the Specialized Criminal Court issued a ruling to imprison journalist Ahmed Maher for four years, after a year and ten months of kidnapping and violations that he suffered inside his detention center under the control of the Transitional Forces in Aden.