Jamal Amer

Jamal Amer is a journalist from Yemen. He is the editor of the weekly journal Al-Wasat, which he founded in 2004. Al-Wasat frequently publishes reports critical of the government from international human rights organizations.

Background

Prior to 2004, Amer worked as a journalist for the weekly Al-Wahdawi. His reporting resulted in convictions for "harming the public interest", "offending King Fahd of Saudi Arabia", and "damaging relations between Saudi Arabia and Yemen". In 2000, he was banned by a court from working as a journalist for having "insulted Saudi Arabia".

Abduction

In 2005, Al-Wasat carried a series of articles criticizing government corruption, including an article on government officials who had sent children to allied countries to study despite a prohibition from President Ali Abdallah Saleh forbidding the arrangement. On 25 August, Amer was abducted outside his home in Sana'a by four men in a vehicle with military license plates. They blindfolded him, drove him into the mountains, beat him, threatened to kill him, and ordered him to stop writing about government officials before releasing him. Though Amer filed a complaint, authorities reportedly took no action on the case.