According to a report from Al-Mansoori’s family received by YJS, the journalist’ health is in grave danger due to its deterioration in the Central Security Camp prison in the capital, Sana’a.
Al-Mansoori alongside with AbdulaKhleq Amran, Akram Al-Waleedi and Hareth Humaid were kidnapped by the Houthi Movement/Ansar Allah in July 2015. The four journalists have been unfairly sentenced to death for simply carrying out their journalistic duties. Their detention was motivated by their reporting on human rights violations committed by Houthi forces, who charged them with “espionage for foreign states and spreading fake news”.
The IFJ and YJS launched an emergency call to international governments in February 2022 to put pressure on the Houthi authorities to release the four Yemeni journalists. On February 21, the IFJ sent a letter to the President of the Republic of Yemen, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, urging him and his government to do everything possible to save their lives.
The YJS said: “We condemn the continued detention of journalists and the repressive treatment against them, and call for the immediate transfer of our colleague Tawfiq Al-Mansoori to a hospital and the provision of necessary medical care.”
IFJ Secretary General Anthony Bellanger said: “We are deeply concerned about the health of Al Mansoori and we urge the Houthi Movement to provide him with urgent health care. We renew our demands for an immediate release of all kidnapped journalists and the abolition of unjust death sentences against our colleagues. Ansar Allah’ leaders must be held accountable for the health and safety of the journalists in their jails.”
The IFJ is calling on world journalists to stand up with journalists in Yemen by signing an open letter to the UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen urging him to intervene in saving the lives of the four journalists currently on death row.