Yemeni detainees tortured to deadth in UAE secret prison in southern Yemen
YemenExtra
Y.A
By: Yousra Abdulmalik
Paid fighters backed by the UAE have reportedly kidnapped and tortured hundreds of people in southern Yemen. The kidnapping spree took place under the pretext of clearing out suspected al-Qaeda-linked elements.
Armed factions, loyal to the United Arab Emirates ,in Abyan province, took the life of a prisoner of the people of the province in one of the Emirates secret detention in the province after three months of detention.
Local sources in the city told “YemenExtra” that the paid fighters of the United Arab Emirates had killed the citizen ,named “Mohammed Ahmed Al-Deef “in one of its secret prisons yesterday and transported his body ,after being killed, to Wadia’a district.
According to the sources, the citizen was arrested by the factions of the coalition in Abyan province three months ago and taken to one of its secret prisons over false pretexts.
Yesterday, a resident of the city of Aden, run by UAE, suicided inside a prison in Bir Ahmed, which is run by the United Arab Emirates ,after refusing to release him .
According to informed sources, the young prisoner ,Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, nicknamed “Cobra” died at nine o’clock on Monday, suiciding as a result of taking a large dose of heart drugs and sedatives after the prison administration refused to release him, confirming that the prison administration had orders to release him .
Earlier,a video released by a senior Yemeni official shows the coalition executing Yemeni captives Daesh style in yet another criminal action, whereas the captives were blindfolded and had their hands tied behind their backs.
According to a report provided by Yemeni military figures, who worked with the coalition against Yemen, and obtained by Al Jazeera revealed that detainees in UAE-run jails in southern Yemen were subjected to sexual abuse by Emirati army personnel and their Yemeni surrogates.
The forces subjected the inmates to rape and electrocution in the genitals, chest and armpits, it said, adding some prisoners were physically assaulted and insulted while being hung in midair.
The sources also recounted other examples of horrors in the UAE-controlled prisons, saying electric cables were used alongside wooden bats and steel poles during interrogation sessions.Some of the detainees were subjected to sleep deprivation while being confined to narrow spaces with poor hygienic conditions and limited air ventilation, according to the report.
This form of torture was accompanied for some of the inmates by sessions where their skins were lashed with whips and their injuries were subsequently covered in salt. Others, it said, had industrial nails inserted into their fingers and toenails.
According to the report, more than 49 people were tortured to death and five gravesites were used to bury the deceased.
On June 20, the Associated Press reported that Emirati officers had been torturing and sexually assaulting hundreds of captives at UAE-run prisons in southern Yemen. According to the report, the UAE runs a network of at least 18 secret prisons.
After that, Amnesty International also reported that the UAE and its allied local paid fighters had been torturing captives at a network of clandestine prisons in southern Yemen.
According to the new report obtained by Al Jazeera, the number of UAE-run secret prisons is 27, including sites in Hadramout, Aden, Socotra, Mayyun Island, as well as a facility in Eritrea where the UAE maintains a military base.
Notably, In an opinion piece published by The Washington Post on Wednesday, Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani said Riyadh and Abu Dhabi are busy cutting deals with al-Qaeda terrorists operating in Yemen instead of making efforts to restore peace to the Arabian Peninsula state and end the humanitarian crisis of their own making there.
“We should be engaging in dialogue to find a political solution in Yemen. Instead, our neighbors have chosen to turn their backs on the region, letting extremists flourish in an already fragile state. Our collective goal in the Middle East is to counter terrorism, but our neighbors have different priorities,” said Sheikh Meshal.
The senior Qatari diplomat based his remarks on an investigation by the Associated Press, which blew the lid off the secret collaboration between the Saudi-led coalition waging war on Yemen and the al-Qaeda terrorists active there.
The AP study found that “the coalition cut secret deals with al-Qaeda fighters, paying some to leave key cities and towns and letting others retreat with weapons, equipment and wads of looted cash,” while “hundreds more were recruited to join the coalition itself.”
Aden city, which was occupied by UK but now under the control of UAE, and the rest of the southern cities witness an insecurity situation that increased the assassinations of Imams of mosques and security and military leaderships.
The UAE took control of Aden under the pretext of confronting the so –called “Houthis” , part of the Yemeni army forces, and supported the establishment and formation of armed elements there.