50 Detainees are on hunger strike in Aden

A picture taken on September 2, 2014 in the Iranian capital Tehran shows a wax statue of a detainee displayed in a cell of the “Qasr prison”, a former prison hosting political prisoners that was turned into a museum in 2012. The building was built in 1790 at the time of Qajar king, Fath-ali Shah by the Russian architect Markov before it was converted into a prison in 1929. AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE

Dozens of detainees in a prison run by the UAE-backed Transitional Council in Aden, southern Yemen, began a hunger strike to protest their arbitrary detention.

Sources reported that 50 detainees in Bir Ahmed prison went on an open hunger strike to protest their detention without cases and the inhumane treatment they are subjected to.

Most of the detainees belong to the northern governorates stressed that they were arrested from their homes or workplaces, on which they depend for their livelihood.

Sources noted that among the detainees are travelers who arrived in Aden to travel abroad, especially after the intransigence of the Saudi-led coalition and its refusal to open new destinations for Sana’a International Airport, in addition to the current Jordanian capital, Amman.