A child tortured by the Houthis for 3 years and taken to the execution grounds paralyzed

English - Saturday 18 September 2021 الساعة 07:53 pm
Aden, NewsYemen:

On Saturday morning, the Houthi militia executed nine Yemenis, including a minor, after they were accused of participating in the killing of Houthi leader Saleh Al-Sammad, the former head of the so-called "Supreme Political Council".

The arbitrary execution was carried out by firing squad in public, in Tahrir Square in central Sana'a, in the presence of Houthi leaders, and in light of strict security measures and widespread security.

The nine victims are from Al-Hodeidah Governorate (western Yemen), and one of them is a child under the age of seventeen, named Abdulaziz Ali Al-Aswad. A picture taken of him before his execution shook Yemen from one end to the other.

The Houthi militia had kidnapped the child Abdulaziz Al-Aswad, at the age of 14, on charges of participating in the killing of Al-Sammad, and practiced various forms of torture against him in prison, for a period of three years, to the point of having a spinal cord cut and a broken spine.

Pictures that spread widely on social media sites in Yemen showed a member of the Houthi militia holding the upper half of Al-Aswad's body moments before the arbitrary execution, because the latter lost the ability to stand on his feet, as a result of the brutal torture he was subjected to in  Prison, before being carried to the execution grounds, paralyzed.

Earlier, lawyer Abdulmajeed Sabra reported that lawyer Saqr Al-Samani, who represented the child Abdulaziz Al-Aswad, requested that his client be presented to a medical committee to determine his age, as he was under the age of eighteen when he was kidnapped, but the Houthis’ Specialized Criminal Appeals Division rejected the request.

The Executive Director of Mwatana Organization for Human Rights, Abdul Rashid Al-Faqih, considered that the trial of the accused had "fundamental flaws and serious violations of the enforceable Yemeni law and the principles and conditions of a fair trial."

Human rights organizations, including SAM Organization for Rights and Freedoms, the Yemeni Coalition to Monitor Human Rights Violations, Rights Radar for Human Rights, the Defense Foundation for Rights and Freedoms, and the American Center for Justice, said in a statement, “The procedures for hearing the case before the Houthi militia courts were accompanied by deliberate violations and breaches.”  The rights and liberties of the accused are clear.

It pointed out that these breaches and violations took place, starting with the arrest of the nine citizens, the confiscation of their freedoms and their enforced disappearance for many months without anyone's knowledge, including their relatives, with the prevention and denial of any visit or enabling them to contact and inform any of their relatives for months.

The organizations statement added that the investigation and trial stages witnessed complex and serious violations of the rights of these people, as the specialized criminal prosecution in Hodeidah suddenly and without reasons deprived them of their right to defense or to present legal defenses and the necessary evidence.