Marsadak Condemns the Raid on the Office of the Deputy Minister of Information in Aden

The Marsadak (Yemeni Media Freedom Observatory) strongly condemns the raid carried out on Sunday, September 14, by armed men affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council (STC), who stormed the office of the Deputy Minister of Information in Aden, Mr. Hussein Basaleem, and forcibly seized it under the pretext of handing it over to Salah Al-Aqel. Al-Aqel was appointed as Deputy Minister of Information through decrees issued by the STC’s president and Vice Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, Aidarous Al-Zubaidi.

Marsadak holds the STC fully responsible for this violation against Mr. Basaleem, who was appointed by an official decree. It further stresses that no request to hand over his office was ever made by the IRG of Yemen or its relevant institutions, namely the Ministry of Information, the Prime Minister, or the Head Presidential Leadership Council.

Marsadak considers these practices to be devoid of any legal framework regulating the work of media institutions, and reflective of a behavior of coercion and appropriation of media institutions.

The Marsadak has previously documented the storming of the headquarters of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate in Aden, the Yemeni News Agency (SABA), as well as the banning of Yemeni media channels from operating or opening broadcast offices, in addition to the imposition of increasing censorship measures on journalists in Aden, a city under the influence of the Southern Transitional Council.

The Marsadak stresses that the continued detention of journalist Nasih Shakir for more than 22 months, along with his enforced disappearance, torture, and deprivation of basic rights, constitutes a grave violation of international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture, as well as Yemen’s obligations under national and international treaties.