Yemen Monitor/Monitoring Unit/Exclusive
An electronic campaign was launched on Saturday evening to demand the disclosure of the fate of the assistant secretary-general of the Yemeni Islah Party, Muhammad Qahtan and his release from the prisons of the Houthi militia.
Under the hashtag#)# قحطان_مفتاح_السلام Qahtan_Key_to_Peace), hundreds of activists and civil society organizations launched a wide electronic campaign demanding the disclosure of the fate of Yemeni politician Muhammad Qahtan after nine years of kidnapping and enforced disappearance in the Houthi prisons.
The campaign coinciding the resumption of prisoner and detainee exchange negotiations between the legitimate government and the Houthi group, under the auspices of the United Nations, in the Omani capital, Muscat, on Sunday.
30 Yemeni organizations accused the United Nations of neglecting the case of the abducted politician “Qahtan” and said in a statement: “We are following with great concern the continued enforced disappearance of the politician Muhammad Qahtan since April 4, 2015, by the Houthi militia, and more than nine years have passed without revealing his fate or allowing his family to visit him or communicate with him, which constitutes a flagrant violation of human rights and international laws.”
The statement condemned “this ongoing crime, as enforced disappearance is a serious violation of human rights, and constitutes a crime against humanity according to Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”
The statement added: “It is unfortunate that the United Nations and the UN envoy to Yemen have not used their tools to pressure the Houthi group on the issue of the forcibly disappeared, headed by the politician Muhammad Qahtan who is included in the UN Security Council Resolution No. 2216, which reflects a laxity in dealing with the file of the forcibly disappeared and not giving it the priority it deserves in previous rounds of negotiations.”
Yemeni activist Naif Al-Imad tweeted: “A new negotiation session and deprivation is still haunting Qahtans family, who have not received a single call from him since his abduction by the criminal Houthi gang.”
Al-Imad added on his account on” X”: “Qahtan and his free brothers are behind the bars of Houthi terrorism, all of them are a top priority! But Qahtans release was conditional before any negotiations in the last round a year ago, and reneging on that means that we do not respect our conditions and do not put weight on our sacrifices, for every prisoner or kidnapped person.”
The Yemeni journalist Hassan Hadees wrote: “Why has the UN envoy not submitted any briefing to the UN Security Council on the developments in the case of the Yemeni politician Muhammad Qahtan and demanded that he take firm action against the Houthis for their refusal to implement the council’s resolution for the tenth year?”
Hadees added: “Yemenis and all free people of the world must intensify their efforts to force the Houthi militia to release the politician Muhammad Qahtan and end the suffering of his family that has lasted for 10 years.”
Activist and journalist Ali Al-Auqabi wrote: “Any step that the legitimate negotiation delegation will take in Muscat to conclude an exchange deal before talking about the politician Muhammad Qahtan and his release by the Houthi militias without condition will be a disgrace, there is widespread Yemeni anger due to the continued kidnapping of Qahtan and the silence of the United Nations and its weakness in implementing Resolution 2216, and the concessions of the legitimacy are enough!!”
On April 5, 2015, the Houthis kidnapped the leader of the Yemeni Islah Party, Muhammad Qahtan from his home in the capital Sana’a and took him to an unknown destination. His fate has not been revealed till now.
