A human rights report reveals the methods of brutal torture in Houthi prisons
English - Sunday 10 January 2021 الساعة 06:32 pm
Aden, NewsYemen:
On Sunday, a human rights watchdog revealed that the Houthi militia, the Iranian arm in Yemen, is practicing sexual abuse against kidnappers in its prisons.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said, in a report issued today, that the Houthi sexual assaults of all kinds, insults and threats to the detainees' families are a major part of the tools of torture.
The report, titled “I wished to die,” stated that severe beatings with heavy tools, rifle butts, hanging hands for long hours, beatings with the whip after stripping prisoners, and using chemical incendiary materials during torture, is a major part of the Houthi torture method.
He emphasized that the Houthi torture methodology led to permanent disabilities with devastating health effects, as well as the death of dozens of abductees under torture, with beating on the head and burns.
The report was based on interviews with 13 editors in the last exchange deal in mid-October.
The report estimated the number of Houthi prisons at more than 200 prisons, cells, detention centers, and slaughterhouses for torture in Houthi-controlled provinces. (But the mothers of the kidnapped estimated the number of prisons in her statistics two years ago at 500).
He said that the Houthi militia’s first task when controlling any area is building new prisons.
The Euro-Mediterranean called on the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment to conduct a fact-finding visit to Yemen, and to prepare a detailed report to be submitted to the competent authorities documenting the violations committed inside prisons, especially the prisons run by the Houthi group.
He also called on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to open a serious investigation into the violations documented in Yemen, especially the enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings, as these acts constitute crimes that fall within the framework of the court's work.
