Yemeni journalist kidnapped, another victim of Houthi terrorism

Yemeni journalist Nadia Muqbil is spending her 27th day in Houthi militia detention since her abduction on March 28th in a Sanaa street.

Independent journalist Nadia Muqbil was on a mission to prepare a report on the high prices as the month of Ramadan approached a local news platform in Sanaa. She was caught in the middle of security patrols by the so-called Houthi Interior.

According to Yemeni media and human rights sources, Houthi militias detained journalist Nadia in the security detention of Haziz in Sana’a, before transferring her two days after her kidnapping to another detention center.

Houthi militias confiscated Nadia’s phones and refused to allow her to communicate with her family for days. They also continue to refuse to release her despite an appeal by the journalist’s family to the so-called “Interior Minister of Houthi militias”, Abdul-Karim Al-Houthi, and human rights and press demands for her release, according to the sources.

For eight years, Yemeni women journalists have been subjected to a fierce Houthi attack that deprived them of their jobs and led to their arrest and killing.

The Yemeni Ministry of Information in the internationally recognized government condemned in the strongest terms on Saturday the kidnapping of journalist Nadia Muqbil by Houthi militias in Sanaa, describing it as a heinous crime.

Yemeni Information Minister Muammar al-Eryani said the kidnapping of journalist Nadia is a heinous crime and is an extension of the series of attacks Houthi terrorist militias are targeting journalists in areas under their control.

In a series of Twitter posts, the Yemeni official pointed to the policy of repression and muzzling the mouths of the Houthi militias in order to hide facts from the public opinion and to completely disregard the customs and traditions that criminalize the harming of Yemeni women, whatever the circumstances and justifications.

He called on the international community and the United Nations, through its representative in Yemen, to provide the necessary protection for journalists and women and to put real pressure on Houthi militias to release Nadia Muqbil and all journalists and women who have been forcibly disappeared without any conditions.

Since late 2014, dozens of journalists have been arrested by Houthi militias, with 12 still detained by the putschists, including four who the militias threaten to execute as part of their political blackmail of their opponents and the UN.

In February, the International Federation of Yemeni Journalists and the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate launched an open campaign to send a letter to the UN envoy, pressuring the Houthis to release the journalists in detention centers.

After the Houthi militias overran the capital, Sanaa, they closed down and confiscated all the different votes and turned the north of Yemen, which is mostly under their control, into a large prison with no independent journalistic activity.