AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: The Iran-backed Houthi militia has admitted that its personnel in Yemen’s northern province of Saada kidnapped, imprisoned, and brutally tortured to death a young man, in a rare acknowledgment of human rights violations in its detention facilities.
The group said that four men who acted “on their own” seized a young grocer, named Ibrahim Yahiya Hashool Al-Thamali, from the Sahar district of Saada, and brutally tortured him in captivity, leading to his death.
Yemeni activists and the victim’s relatives shared a video of Al-Thamali’s semi-naked body, with multiple signs of torture, saying that the man was kidnapped from his place of work, imprisoned, and brutally tortured by the Houthis before his death.
Hussein Al-Ezzi, the Houthi deputy foreign minister, accused “infiltrators” in the militia of human rights violations committed against civilians.
Al-Ezzi’s attempts to absolve his organization of abusing captives and kidnapping civilians were met with outrage from Yemeni activists on social media, who accused the Houthis of routinely torturing inmates to death.
“When will you awaken from your slumber and acknowledge that your way of governing is flawed and that your conduct toward people is unacceptable?” wrote Ibrahim Ismail, a Sanaa-based academic.
“Ibrahim Al-Thamali is one of the hundreds of innocent Yemeni youths who have been slaughtered unjustly on a daily basis since the seizure of the capital, Sanaa, by an evil gang,” Mohammed Anam, a Yemeni journalist, said, adding that the Houthis acknowledged murdering the young man out of fear that his strong clan might revolt against their rule.
The murder of Al-Thamali has once again attracted attention to maltreatment in Houthi detention centers in regions under their control, particularly in Saada, the militia’s stronghold.
Mutahar Al-Badhiji, executive director of the Yemeni Coalition to Monitor Human Rights Violations, told Arab News that last year, 500 Yemenis were kidnapped by the Houthis from areas under their control, 50 were forcibly disappeared, and 40 were tortured.
Al-Badhiji said that Houthi torture tactics include sleep deprivation, showering captives with cold water, particularly in the winter, hanging by the feet, beating with batons and electric wires, and isolating prisoners.
Muammar Al-Eryani, Yemen’s information minister, said the Houthis have kidnapped thousands of Yemenis, including politicians, journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens, and disappeared them while subjecting them to brutal torture, resulting in the deaths of hundreds and permanent disabilities of many others.
He urged international rights organizations and mediators to identify and condemn the Houthis for their crimes and to exert pressure on the militia to free all captives.
“The international community, the UN, and human rights organizations and agencies are obliged to denounce this terrible crime, as well as other crimes and violations carried out by the Houthi militia, to prosecute and hold those guilty accountable, and to exert pressure on the militia leaders to promptly and unconditionally release all abductees from their illegal detention facilities,” Al-Eryani tweeted.
