A former kidnapped person testifies about brutal torture in Houthi prisons
English - Saturday 01 October 2022 الساعة 04:10 pm
Sana'a, NewsYemen, Jalal Muhammad:
Iran's terrorist arm has practiced brutal torture on a large scale against the abductees since it took control of state institutions in Sana'a and the rest of the northern governorates at the end of 2014.
Recently, shocking videos were leaked documenting scenes of torture against the abductees in the prisons of Iran's arm in Sana'a and other areas.
In this report, NewsYemen recounts the story of a young man from Sanaa, who was kidnapped by the militia, after he refused to enroll in sectarian courses, as he spent two years and three months in prison before being released later, and was dismissed from his work.
traces of torture
The 37-year-old, "Salim" -a pseudonym- remembers the scars of cigarettes and the torture that are still on his body, saying: "These effects may be a normal condition that can be eliminated with treatment, which means that they may disappear over time, but the internal scars, by this, I mean the emotional and intellectual effects of imprisonment, to remind us always that we were and still reject the Houthi project and the Houthi culture, and we refuse to return to the era of the Imamate even if it is covered with the name of the Republic, and we still do so, but Al-Houthi does not understand or does not want to understand that he is popularly rejected, no matter how some pretend to accept it, and also the legitimacy does not want to understand and the entire world that here is a people who deserve to live in dignity, but what can he do in front of the Houthi machine of oppression and terrorism.”
Salim, who hails from Al-Mahwit Governorate, northwest of Sanaa, recounts his suffering in Houthi detention and prisons to NewsYemen: “After three months of investigations, torture, humiliation and insults in October 2018, I was transferred with some detainees from the reserve prison, to criminal investigation, where we were allowed to contact our relatives and I was able to tell my family where I was, but I was only able to meet them when I got out of detention after two years and three months.”
Salim continues: "They took my phone and searched the memory card, which contained many videos of the activities of the martyr leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, his last speech, and news scenes about the progress of the joint forces on the West Coast."
Criminal Investigation Hell
Salim had been kidnapped, as he reported on October 23, 2018, after leaving his workplace, without anyone being able to know his fate, even his family, who learned of his whereabouts after he was transferred to the Criminal Investigation Prison.
Before he was transferred again to the National Security Reserve, the young man was accused of joining subversive and terrorist cells affiliated with the "aggression", a charge that the Houthi group attaches to anyone who opposes its sectarian project and its subversive role.
Young Salim also narrates the events that took place in the criminal investigation in Al-Adl Street in the Amanat Al-Asimah, after being detained for two months and subjected to intense torture by Lieutenant Muayad, one of the arms of the criminal investigation director at the time, Sultan Zabin, saying: “After the prolonged torture and investigation ended, I was asked to record a video, where I confess that I am a terrorist and saboteur agent, a follower of what they call aggression and a connection with Brigadier General Ammar Saleh, and that I regret what I have done. At first, I refused, but after torture, I agreed, and I was told what to say, in the presence of an officer from the Ministry of Interior.
Then came the filming stage, and a meeting with (the cell of sabotage and intelligence tracking the aggression), knowing that I had never met any of the previous leaders, but my love for the conference as a party and for the person of the martyr leader and his sons and my refusal to engage in cultural courses. The Houthis had enough charges to imprison me and even kill me, unfortunately.
He added: "Despite all of that, the thing that surprised me was the photographer. The photographer was my friend, and we often met and chewed khat until months before my arrest, but he was a descendant who sold his country and people for the sake of his group."
Torture and the voices of the detainees
Salim also narrates scenes of torture in the National Security Prison as well as in the criminal investigation in Sana'a, where he was hung from the ceiling and beaten with a stick until he bleeds from it in different parts of his body.
He added: "Houthi detentions are an unbearable hell, and have nothing to do with the prison systems known in the world. Most of the accusations are random and false, and the defendants have nothing to do with them. They also have their own torture methods that are their specialty, and they led to the killing of tens or even hundreds of innocent people."
Salim expresses his regret that thousands of detainees remain in Houthi prisons, and that their case has been drained by all political parties alike.
He says in this regard: “Unfortunately, the issue of detainees has become a number in the Houthi and legitimate accounts after years of coup and war, instead of this issue being a file above negotiation, it is used in negotiations between the two parties to conduct military exchanges and release prisoners of war and military detainees on both sides under UN supervision.”
He adds that the issue of detainees is a matter above negotiation, in which immediate measures must be taken without including the files and accounts in which the Houthis trade and elude the Houthis at the expense of the Yemenis who are still waiting for thousands of their sons, that is why the international bodies concerned with human rights should strive to open prisons and detention centers on all sides as soon as possible, to release all detainees and those who are missing inside the prisons of oppression and humiliation, because of their opinion or political position, and the rejection of domestication, and then move on to other solutions related to negotiations and political quotas between them.
