Yemen: Houthis storm office of state-owned newspaper, dismiss its editor

Members of Shia Houthi rebels yesterday stormed the office of one of the country’s largest state-owned newspapers.

A source from the newspaper told the Anadolu Agency that armed Houthi rebels, backed by members of staff, stormed the office of Al-Thawra newspaper, which is located in the Hasba area of the capital Sanaa. They sent a message to Al-Thawra’s Editor-in-Chief Faisal Markam, who was not present at his office at the time, ordering him not to come to work again because of his alledged involvement in corruption cases.

The Houthi militants assigned the newspaper’s Deputy Editor-in-Chief Marwan Damaj the job of managing the newspaper, the source added.

No one from the Houthi group was available for immediate comment.

On January 2013, Yemen’s president had issued a decree appointing Faisal Makram as chairman of Al-Thawra Establishment for Printing and Publishing and Marwan Ahmed Damaj as deputy chairman and deputy editor-in-chief for journalistic affairs.