During 2017, Mwatana documented 29 incidents committed by Ansar Allah (the Houthis), in four Yemeni governorates, Sa’ada, Sana’a, Taizz and Al Hudaydah, including three cases where torture led to death. It also documented 52 cases, which armed groups – affiliated to the Saudi-Emirati-led Coalition and pro-Hadi forces– carried put in six Yemeni governorates: Aden, Abyan, Lahj, Marib, Hadramaut and Shabwah, including 14 cases where torture led to death.
The Ansar Allah (Houthi) group, as well as the armed groups of the Arab Coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, such as the Security Belt and the Hadrami Elite forces, practice torture and fatal torture, using beatings with batons, metal bars, kicking, slapping, burning and water-boarding. In some of the cases, documented by Mwatana, torture led to death. Torture is used as a means to coerce a confession during interrogations.
On June 24, 2017, Mwatana published “Torture in Yemen”: Multiple Powers and one Behavior” which shed light on the use of torture in detention centers run by all parties to the conflict in several Yemeni governorates.
The Legal Framework
International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law prohibit torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment and do not justify it under any circumstances. Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrines the prohibition of torture, as does Customary International Law.
Article 11 of the Convention against Torture provides that each State shall comply with the rules governing the interrogation, its instructions, methods and practices, as well as the arrangements for the detention and treatment of persons subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment with a view to preventing any cases of torture.
In 1991, Yemen ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Incidents:
· On Tuesday, March 7, 2017, around 09:00 pm, the Security Belt forces, backed by the Saudi-UAE-led Arab Coalition, detained eight people in Zunjubar District, in Abyan Governorate. The detainees were subjected to torture with beating and waterboarding, which resulted in the death of Ameen Abdul Aziz Al-Maqtari (23 years old).
In his statement to Mwatana for Human Rights, Arsalan Mohammed Saleh (22 years old) said: “After Isha time [late in the evening], I went to the Ma’zoub (a small ranch where goats and bees are kept). Then forces from the Security Belt in Zunjubar District, raided the place and fired shots in the air. One of them said: ‘The place is surrounded’. There were about six armored vehicles, along with about 25 masked and armed men wearing civilian uniforms. We were taken to the Police Headquarters in Zunjubar; and each one of us was investigated individually. The investigating officer asked me: ‘Do you belong to the Islamic State (Daesh) or Al-Qaeda organization? We want to know to which organization you belong.’ I told him that I do not belong to any organization. He would hit me strongly with his hand, or kick me and have me provoked. I was taken, along with a group of young men, to the sea; it was a bright moonlit night that made each one on the beach visible. We were put in a row, with a considerable break between one another. Then the forces spread out. They took the first one in the row; it was Ameen Abdul Aziz Al-Maqtari (23 years old). They filled his mouth with sand, tied him up and dragged him into the sea. He was placed in a prone position [on the coast]; and seven people from the Security Belt forces stepped on his back. After few moments, he was taken back; he could hardly breathe. They beat him; he was screaming in pain. They were yelling at him: ‘Admit that you are the leader of the Islamic State.’ Ameen died due to torture. After that, I was subjected to the same kind of torture; I was about to face the same fate of Ameen, if one of the security members had not intervened and said, ‘This is enough!’ I was released on Tuesday March 14, 2017″.[1]
· On Sunday, August 6, 2017, around 07:00 pm, the Security Belt forces, allied to the Saudi-UAE-led Arab Coalition in Abyan Governorate, detained Munaif Haydara Ahmed Salem (32 years old).
His wife said: “When I visited him, he told me that they interrogated him right from the first day and that he was subjected to beatings. On the first and second days of investigation, they forced him to admit that he was an al-Qaeda affiliate. Each investigation session lasted for 30 minutes, during which he was subjected to beatings with gun butts and sticks and hot water, as well as slapping on his face. His face was bruised and swollen.”[2] Munif’s wife believes that the true reason for detaining her husband was his criticism of the Security forces Belt and of their leaders.
· On Thursday, October 11, 2017, around 05:30 pm, the Ansar Allah group (the Houthis) detained Hussein Abdullah Akhdar (55 years old) while he was strolling in Mazda St. in the capital, Sana’a.
According to an investigation conducted by Mwatana for Human Rights, the family of Akhdar received him from Al-Jomhori Hospital on a wheel chair, as he was unable to walk. Al-Akhdar was taken once again from his family and was placed in the same room at the hospital. There, he was forced to be recorded in a video and admit that he was not beaten or harmed at all during the period of captivity.[3]
Akhdar was detained in a basement cell at the prison of the Political Security Apparatus in the capital, Sana’a. Traces of burns were seen on his body, all the way from his abdomen to his thighs. One of the detainees died of torture in front of Akhdar’s eyes. During the period of detention, Akhdar used to tell the officers at the prison that he was tired and sick, but they would always reply to him, saying: ‘Die… You deserve that.” [4]
Akhdar died few days after he was released, on Saturday, December 9, 2107. [5]