Justice Remains Elusive in Secret Prisons “Exposed” Southern Yemen: Report
YemenExtra
SH.A.
Detainees are numerous and the criminal is Emirati, A new Emirati detainee similar to the detainees in Aden, but this time in the province of Shabwa, and from under the ground and the western entrance of the Directorate of Ateq, the capital of the province specifically, taken by the forces of the so-called “Nokbah Shabwani”.
Justice remains elusive after a network of secret prisons was exposed in southern Yemen, documents egregious violations going unchecked, including systemic enforced disappearance and torture and other ill-treatment amounting to war crimes.
How …. scores of men have been subjected to enforced disappearance after being arbitrarily arrested and detained by United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemeni forces operating outside the command of their own government. Many have been tortured, with some feared to have died in custody.
“The families of these detainees find themselves in an endless nightmare where their loved ones have been forcibly disappeared by UAE-backed forces. When they demand to know where their loved ones are held, or if they are even still alive, their requests are met with silence or intimidation,” said Tirana Hassan, Crisis Response Director at Amnesty International.
Families of the detained search in vain, they reported about their desperate search for information. Mothers, wives, and sisters of those forcibly disappeared have been holding protests for nearly two years now, making the rounds between government and prosecution offices, security departments, prisons, coalition bases, and various entities handling human rights complaints.
Some families said they were approached by individuals who told them their relatives had died in custody.
The reports, which were documented by international organizations and agencies, including the Associated Press, which published a press investigation containing leaked testimony from the UAE prisons in Yemen. According to the agency’s latest report, detainees were sexually assaulted by UAE officers to force them to confess of working with al-Qaeda and ISIS, or to work with the UAE.
Hundreds of prisoners have been sexually abused in ” Be’r Ahmed prison” in the southern city of Aden, according to seven witnesses interviewed by the Associated Press. “Which indicated that the characterization of mass attacks” provides a window to a world of sexual torture rampant in prisons run by the UAE in Yemen. “
Despite the knowledge of fugitive Hadi’s government and the recognition of some of the ministers of these prisons, including Interior Minister Hadi Ahmed al-Masri in those prisons, in addition to documented reports from the Associated Press on torture in UAE prisons in Yemen, human rights groups and even the United Nations, The Pentagon did not move. As well as Hadi’s government did not issue any official statement or comment in this regard