NEW PRESS COURT ISSUES FIRST CONVICTION AGAINST

C O N F I D E N T I A L SANAA 002000

SIPDIS

FOR NEA/ARP, NEA/PPD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/01/2019
TAGS: PHUM KPAO YM
SUBJECT: NEW PRESS COURT ISSUES FIRST CONVICTION AGAINST
YEMENI JOURNALISTS

Classified By: Ambassador Stephen Seche for reasons 1.4(b) and (d).


1. (U) In the latest blow to Yemen's bludgeoned independent
press, the Special Press and Publications Court issued its
first conviction on October 31 in its second ruling. The
court, established in May 2009, ruled that a 2008 article
entitled "Weapon of Mass Destruction," critical of President
Saleh, constituted libel, and banned the article's author,
U.S.-based Yemeni-American Munir al-Mawri, from practicing
journalism in Yemen for life. The court also sentenced Mawri
in absentia to two years in prison and banned Samir Jubran,
Editor-in-Chief of independent newspaper al-Masdar, which
published the article, from working as a journalist for one
year.


2. (C) Civil-society organizations, opposition parties and
independent journalists unanimously condemned the ruling.
Jubran, who participated in a U.S. Department of State
International Visitor program in June 2009, will meet with
Ambassador Seche this week at Embassy Sana'a to discuss the
ruling and the future of press freedom in Yemen.
SECHE