SANAA, 14 April 2004 — A Yemeni court yesterday banned a journalist from writing for six months after he was convicted of reporting an alleged assassination attempt against the President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s eldest son.
The court in Sanaa also fined journalist Saeed Thabit Saeed, who works for the London-based Quds Press news agency, 5,000 rials ($27).
Saeed went on trial early March after his agency reported that Lt. Col. Ahmad Ali Abdullah Saleh, who commands Yemen’s Republican Guard, was shot and wounded by an officer at his office.
Authorities categorically denied the report.
Saeed’s lawyer, Muhammad Naji Allaw, said he would appeal the sentence, adding that he was not surprised by the verdict.
Saeed, who was last month elected deputy chairman of the Yemeni Journalists’ Union, was accused by the public prosecution of “publishing false news with malicious intent ... to disrupt the nation’s stability.”
He was held at the headquarters of the Political Security Organization (intelligence) for almost three days before being brought before a judge who ordered his release on bail.
The Yemeni president last month appointed his son last commander of the republican guard forces. The younger Saleh has been leading the country’s special anti-terror forces since 1999.
