Yemen: Abusive Detention Rife Under Houthis | WPN World People News

Houthi and other Sanaa-based authorities in Yemen have arbitrarily detained, tortured, and forcibly disappeared numerous opponents, Human Rights Watch said on Nov 17. Among the hundreds of cases of arbitrary detention reported by Yemeni groups since September 2014, Human Rights Watch recently documented two deaths in custody and 11 cases of alleged torture or other ill-treatment, including the abuse of a child.

The authorities should free those wrongfully held immediately, end detention without access to lawyers or family members, and prosecute officials responsible for mistreatment, Human Rights Watch said. The authorities should also promptly implement an amnesty for political detainees they announced in September.

“The conflict with the Saudi Arabia-led coalition provides no justification for torture and ‘disappearance’ of perceived opponents,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The Sanaa authorities put themselves at risk of future prosecution if they don’t account for the people who are wrongfully detained and return them to their families.”

In August and September 2016, Human Rights Watch interviewed five former detainees and 19 relatives and friends of those detained in Sanaa and elsewhere in Yemen.

Since August 2014, Human Rights Watch has documented the Sanaa-based authorities’ arbitrary or abusive detention of at least 61 people. The authorities have since released at least 26, but 24 remain in custody and two died during detention. Families have not been able to learn the whereabouts of nine more men, who have seemingly been forcibly disappeared. Many people appear to have been arrested because of their links to Islah, a Sunni opposition party, but students, journalists, activists, and members of the Baha’i community have also been arrested and detained for apparently politically motivated reasons.

The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, have controlled the capital, Sanaa, and much of Yemen since September 2014. On July 28, 2016, the Houthis and former president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s General People’s Congress announced the formation of a governing council to run the country. The newly established Supreme Political Council oversees the Sanaa-based Interior Ministry, which oversees detention sites in Houthi- and Saleh-controlled Yemen.

On September 20, the council adopted Decision 15 of 2016, which declared a general amnesty for anyone, civilian or military, who had assisted the Saudi-led coalition and had returned home within two months, given up arms, and signed a pledge disavowing any further support to the coalition. The amnesty excludes those accused of “terrorism” or war crimes, and people who escaped detention or continued to fight with the coalition.

On November 9, Khalid Al-Sharif, head of the committee set up to process amnesty requests, told Human Rights Watch that implementation of the decision was delayed as two committee members were killed and three wounded at a large funeral gathering in Sanaa that the Saudi-led coalition bombed on October 8. While the amnesty applies only to individuals accused of cooperating with the coalition, the committee would coordinate with other Sanaa-based authorities to ensure that arbitrarily detained individuals not subject to the amnesty be released promptly without signing the otherwise required pledge, he said.

On November 12, a local nongovernmental organization told Human Rights Watch that no steps had been taken to implement the decision and that the authorities were continuing to arrest and detain people without charge.

The Sanaa-based authorities should immediately begin releasing those held arbitrarily, prioritizing the release of children and other vulnerable prisoners, Human Rights Watch said. No one should be required to sign a pledge that includes admitting they cooperated with the coalition as a condition of release.

The amnesty committee does not have the authority to investigate allegations of mistreatment, but the Sanaa-based Foreign Affairs Ministry wrote on October 14, in response to a Human Rights Watch letter, that detainees have the right to file complaints with a deputy prosecutor who can determine the legality of a person’s detention, investigate mistreatment claims, and forward cases of abuse for prosecution. The ministry did not respond to Human Rights Watch queries as to whether any investigations or prosecutions into alleged torture or ill-treatment of detainees had occurred.

Abdul Basit Ghazi, a Yemeni lawyer who heads the nongovernmental Defense Authority of Abductees and Prisoners, which provides legal representation to detainees, said that the general prosecutor has ordered the release of dozens of detainees and investigations into alleged abuse, including several cases Human Rights Watch documented. However, Ghazi said that in most cases prison and police authorities do not release these detainees, let alone investigate abuses. He also said they often block access to prisons, including to officials who oversee detainees. The authorities did not grant Human Rights Watch’s repeated requests to visit prisons.

Mwatana, a leading Yemeni human rights organization, has reported on 53 cases of arbitrary detention and 26 cases of enforced disappearance by Sanaa-based authorities. Amnesty International has documented 60 cases of arbitrary detention or enforced disappearance.

Ghazi said that his organization was working on behalf of more than 2,500 detainees and disappeared people. He said that as of August, the Sanaa-based authorities were holding at least 650 people in the Habra and al-Thawra pretrial detention facilities, another 660 to 700 in Sanaa Central Prison, and 30 to 40 at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Sanaa.

Scores of detainees are also being held at non-official detention sites. Ghazi said that authorities were holding 120 people at the Political Security Organization (PSO) headquarters, 180 at Zain al-Abdeen mosque in Hiziyaz, and 35 at the National Security Bureau (NSB) in Sanaa’s Old City.

Human Rights Watch documented cases of apparent arbitrary detention and mistreatment at all of these locations but was unable to confirm the number of people held at each site. In June, the Houthis and the General People’s Congress were holding 3,760 detainees altogether, according to media reports.

Under international human rights law, an enforced disappearance occurs when the authorities take someone into custody and deny holding them or fail to disclose their fate or whereabouts. “Disappeared” people are at greater risk of torture and other ill-treatment, especially when they are detained outside formal detention facilities, such as police jails and prisons.

While the Sanaa-based authorities may take appropriate measures to address security concerns related to Yemen’s armed conflict, international human rights law protects basic rights, including the right not to be arbitrarily detained, tortured or ill-treated, or forcibly disappeared. At a minimum, those detained should be informed of the specific grounds for their arrest, be able to fairly contest their detention before an independent and impartial judge, have access to a lawyer and family members, and have their case periodically reviewed.

“Enforcing the amnesty could release many people wrongfully detained, but measures are needed to ensure arbitrary arrests and ‘disappearances’ don’t continue,” Whitson said. “It’s crucial to ensure that anyone responsible for torture and other abuses is appropriately punished.”

Source: Human Rights Watch