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IFJ and its Yemeni union urge immediate release of news agency’s editor
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its union the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS) are gravely concerned about the life of Salih Sanhan of the Yemeni news agency SABA, who was kidnaped on 29 May. The IFJ and the YJS are urging his captors to release him forthwith.
According to the YJS’s statement, Sanhan, director of SABA office in Hajjah (norwestern Yemen), was kidnapped in that city last Friday 29 May afternoon by the Houthi rebels and is currently held in the political security prison. Both IFJ and YJS fear for his life as the jail is said to be one of the military targets of the Saudi-led coalition.
“We call for the immediate release of Salih Sanhan and the protection of all reporters working in the country,” said the IFJ’s President Jim Boumelha. “The IFJ welcomed Resolution 2222 adopted by the Security Council of the United Unions last week and we urge the Yemeni de facto authorities to apply the full force of the law in condemning any media workers.”
The IFJ and YJS are concerned about the repeat of the last week’s scenario, when Yemeni journalists Abdullah Kabil and Yousef Alaizry were killed while being held by the Houthis in a seismic monitoring center which was bombed by the Saudi-led coalition’s jet fighters.
The IFJ has repeatedly asked the warring parties to respect the rights of journalists in a conflict that has already claimed the lives of 8 journalists in Yemen since the start of the year, according to the IFJ statistics.
The Federation is also raising these killings with the UN so that they are investigated and those responsible for them are brought to justice.