Arbitrary Detentions and Disappearances

All parties to the conflict have engaged in the arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture and other ill-treatment of individuals over the past years. These have included persons from all walks of life, targeted solely for their political, religious or professional affiliations or for their peaceful activism.

The internationally recognized Yemeni government for example has harassed, threatened and arbitrarily detained activists, including human rights activists. UAE-backed forces in southern Yemen conducted a campaign of arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearance, including 51 men whose cases Amnesty International documented, who were being held in a network of secret prisons, in conditions amounting to what would constitute war crimes.

Huthi forces have arbitrarily arrested and detained critics and opponents as well as journalists, human rights activists and members of the Baha’i community. Amnesty International has documented the cases of 66 individuals, the vast majority men, whose proceedings are all ongoing – except one – before the Sana’a-based Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) – a court traditionally reserved for terrorism-related cases. In all the documented cases, the Huthis and their allied forces subjected the individuals to scores of violations, including enforced disappearance, arbitrary detentions and torture and ill-treatment.

HUTHIS MUST END USE OF JUDICIAL SYSTEM TO SILENCE DISSENT Read the statement

HAMID HAYDARA

Hamid Haydara is a Yemeni of Baha’i affiliation who, like others in his community, has paid years of his life simply as a result of his religious affiliation, at the hands of the Huthi forces. Detained since December 2013, Hamid Haydara went through a fundamentally flawed process, including trumped-up charges, an unfair trial and credible allegations that he was tortured and ill-treated in custody, before he was sentenced to death in January 2018 for allegedly collaborating with Israel and forging official documents. Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience. He is currently in the process of appealing the sentence.

In September 2019, a group of 24 Baha’is of varying ages, including the teenage daughter of Hamid Haydara and his wife, were charged with various serious offences, including espionage for foreign states, some of which can carry the death penalty.

Hamid Haydara, Baha’i prisoner of conscience Read more

THE TEN JOURNALISTS

A group of 10 journalists, Abdelkhaleq Amran, Hisham Tarmoom, Tawfiq al-Mansouri, Hareth Humid, Hasan Annab, Akram al-Walidi, Haytham al-Shihab, Hisham al-Yousefi, Essam Balgheeth and Salah al-Qaedi have been detained by the Huthi de facto authorities since the summer of 2015 and are being prosecuted on trumped-up spying charges for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression. Over the course of their detention the men were forcibly disappeared, held in intermittent incommunicado detention, were deprived of access to medical care and at least three of them were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment. After being held without charge or trial for four years, the first session was held in December 2019 after which the Specialized Criminal Court sentenced four out of the group of ten journalists to death in April 2020.

On 11 April 2020, the Huthi-run Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) in Sana’a sentenced to death journalists Akram Al-Walidi, Abdelkhaleq Amran, Hareth Hamid and Tawfiq Al-Mansouri following grossly unfair trials, including prolonged arbitrary detention and claims of torture or other ill-treatment in detention. The four journalists, along with six other journalists who received long-term sentences have been detained since 2015. Their case is part of a widespread pattern by the Huthi de facto authorities who use the judicial system to stifle freedom of expression, association and religion, by way of handing down harsh sentences, including the death penalty.

30 ACADEMICS AND POLITICAL FIGURES

Youssef al-Bawab, a 45-year-old father of five, is a linguistics professor and political figure. He was arbitrarily arrested in October 2016 as he exited his local mosque in Sana’a. Later that night, the Huthi de facto authorities raided his house and confiscated his belongings. It took his relatives three months before they were able to locate him and were permitted to visit him. The circumstances of his arrest, followed by the authorities’ refusal to disclose his fate and whereabouts amount to an enforced disappearance. In April 2017 he was charged with several offences, including assisting the Saudi Arabia and UAE-led coalition with intelligence regarding military objectives and organizing assassinations; most of these charges carry the death penalty. Throughout his detention, proceedings against Youssef al-Bawab were seriously flawed.

On 9 July 2019, the SCC sentenced him and 29 others, mostly academics and political figures, to death on charges of spying for the Saudi Arabia and UAE-led coalition, following a grossly unfair trial and due process violations. The 30 men, who were all arrested between 2015 and 2016 by the Huthis and allied forces, are in the process of appealing their sentence.

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ASMAA AL-OMEISSY

In 2016, Asmaa al-Omeissy, a 23-year-old mother of two young children, was on her way from southern Yemen to Sana’a to seek safety and reunite with her father. Instead, she was stopped and detained by the Huthis at a checkpoint and was subjected to a brutal ordeal that led her to become the first known Yemeni woman on death row on “state-security” charges.

During her detention, Asmaa al-Omeissy was severely beaten; she was also forced to watch two other detainees hung from the ceiling by their wrists as they were kicked and punched. It was not until May 2017 that she was finally charged and referred to the SCC which usually handles “terrorism” and “state security” cases. While the three men in the same case were released on bail, she remained in custody and on 30 January 2017, the judge sentenced her to death. On 9 July 2019 the judge reversed her death sentence and handed her a 15-year prison sentence instead.

THE MOTHERS OF ABDUCTEES ASSOCIATION

The Mothers of Abductees Association was established in Sana’a in April 2016, some two years after the Huthis took control of Sana’a, arbitrarily detaining and forcibly disappearing thousands of people on the basis of their perceived political allegiance or religious beliefs.

Many women found themselves robbed of their husbands, sons, brothers or fathers and many were left isolated, so they turned to each for support and activism. Since 2016, the Mothers Abductees Association has mobilized to highlight the plight of detainees and demand the respect of rights and due process.