Yemeni jails 2 journalists for criticizing leader

SAN’A, Yemen - A Yemeni court convicted two journalists of slandering the president and sentenced them to prison after they criticized the country’s leader as despotic.

Yemen’s Press and Printing Material Court sentenced Munir al-Mawri to two years in prison and banned him from writing for life after describing President Ali Abdullah Saleh as “a weapon of mass destruction” in a November article in al-Masdar newspaper.

The paper’s editor Samir Jubran was sentenced to one year in jail for allowing the article to be published.

“The sentence is harsh and it is a reflection of the court’s violation of legal procedures,” said Jubran.

Human rights groups have accused Yemen of attempts to stifle the opposition. Journalists commenting negatively on the country’s wars with southern separatists and northern Shiite rebels have been arrested and imprisoned.

In a statement released Saturday the Cairo-based Arab Network for Human Rights Information accused Saleh’s government of “repeated attacks on freedom of expression.”

“ANHRI expressed deep concern for the continued detention of several Yemeni journalists and activists and requested the Yemeni government to respect freedoms and rights,” the statement said.