YEMEN MONITOR/ NEWS ROOM
A Yemeni civil society organization said on Saturday that it had received reports of the death of three detainees during the current holy month of Ramadan, two of them in Houthi prisons and a third in the custody of forces loyal to Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council member Tariq Saleh.
The Association of Mothers of Abductees (a civil society organization) said in a statement that “Sabri Al-Hakimi, a senior trainer at the Ministry of Education and Education in Sana’a, and Khalid Ghazi, an inmate in the pre-trial detention center in Dhamar, died in Houthi prisons, while Ali Shuja’i, a detainee at the Abu Musa al-Ash’ari camp, which belongs to Tariq Saleh’s forces, died.”
It added: “The three died after a period of their abduction and in mysterious circumstances without knowing the causes of death. The families of each victim were informed of the death of their abductee and were told to come and receive the body and bury it. The families refused to receive the body until it was presented to a forensic doctor, which was refused by the two kidnapping parties represented by the Houthis and Tariq Saleh’s forces.”
The Association of Mothers of Abductees stressed that these deaths in prisons, which have reached three cases during the month of Ramadan, “represent a serious violation of human rights and a crime against human values.”
It pointed out that “it shows the mistreatment of detainees from the beginning of their abduction without legal justification, to the suffering and poor conditions of detention they are subjected to inside the prisons, ending with the death of the detainee, without knowing the circumstances of his death.”
The association called for the perpetrators of these crimes to be punished as a deterrent to ensure that they are not repeated. It also expressed its concern about the fate of the rest of the abductees, forcibly disappeared and arbitrarily detained in all prisons, and called for their immediate release. It held all parties fully responsible for their lives and safety.
The association called on the international community and human rights organizations to take urgent action to stop these crimes and to pressure for the release of all abductees before it is too late, stressing that such horrific crimes constitute a serious violation of human rights and international humanitarian law, and must be stopped and stand with the families of the victims, redress their grievances, and bring the perpetrators to justice.
