American Center for Justice Joins Committee to Protect Journalists, Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, and 35 International Organizations to Demand Immediate Release of Journalist Naseh Shaker

Michigan – The American Center for Justice (ACJ) announced that it has joined the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, and 35 other international and local human rights and media organizations in formally urging the Yemeni authorities, both the internationally recognized government led by the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) and the de facto authorities in Aden, to immediately and unconditionally release independent Yemeni journalist Naseh Shaker, who has been arbitrarily detained in Aden for over two years.

According to the joint statement, Mr. Shaker was subjected to enforced disappearance in November 2023 after traveling to Aden to catch a flight to Beirut to attend a journalistic training course. Following this, all contact with him ceased, and security authorities refused to disclose his whereabouts for an extended period, in blatant violation of Yemeni law and international human rights standards.

The signatory organizations noted that credible information indicates Mr. Shaker was initially held in unofficial detention centers run by the Security Belt Forces, before being transferred to the notorious Beir Ahmed prison. He has faced judicial proceedings that lack the most basic guarantees of a fair trial, with charges entirely inconsistent with his work as an independent journalist and his internationally recognized professional record.

The organizations emphasized that the continued detention of Mr. Shaker constitutes a severe attack on press freedom, undermines Yemen’s international obligations, particularly under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Right, and sends a dangerous message threatening journalists’ safety while restricting the public’s right to information.

The signatories called on the Yemeni authorities and the de facto powers in Aden to immediately release Naseh Shaker and all other arbitrarily detained journalists, ensure their physical and psychological safety, guarantee full access to their families and legal representatives, and end practices of enforced disappearance and unlawful detention. These measures are essential to protecting independent journalism and reinforcing the rule of law in Yemen.