AL-MUKALLA: A Yemeni rights group on Tuesday accused the Houthis of torturing prisoners at a Sanaa detention facility, as dozens of Yemeni activists and politicians demanded that the Yemeni militia release people abducted for celebrating the 1962 revolution.
The Mothers of Abductees Association, which represents thousands of female relatives of war prisoners, said that families of abducted people have complained that the Houthis at the Central Security prison in Sanaa tortured their incarcerated relatives, starved them, barred them from contacting or seeing their families, isolated them in cells with mentally ill prisoners, and held them in small, unventilated rooms.
“The Mothers of Abductees Association condemns the Houthi group’s serious violations against our children in the central prison, which pose a serious threat to their lives and safety. We hold them completely accountable for their psychological and physical safety,” the organization said in a statement.
The MAA chairperson, Amat Al-Salam Al-Hajj, told Arab News that the Houthis began torturing the detainees, who had been imprisoned for years, and isolated them after accusing them of causing a riot in the prison. The prisoners then appealed to their families to speak to the media to pressure the Houthis to stop torturing them, she said.
This revelation came after dozens of Yemeni journalists, lawyers, activists, and politicians signed an online petition urging the Houthis to release dozens of Yemenis abducted during a crackdown on those commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the 1962 revolution.
“We are deeply concerned about the unnatural arrest campaign targeting civil activists for expressing joy on the 62nd anniversary of the glorious September 26 Revolution. We urge the wise leaders of the authority in Sanaa to make every effort to persuade the Sanaa authority to immediately stop the arrests,” the Yemeni activists said in the petition.
Ahmed Nagi Al-Nabhani, a Yemeni activist based in Sanaa, told Arab News that the Houthi authorities said the Yemenis were arrested for “inciting” the public to challenge their rule, and that they were not arrested for celebrating the revolution, which the Houthis would honor this year.
“The Sanaa regime does not say that they arrested those people for celebrating the revolution, but rather on charges of incitement against the regime and serving the aggression,” Al-Nabhani said.
Over the past few days, the Houthis have abducted dozens of journalists, activists, military and security officers, and government officials, including some members of the former ruling party, the General People’s Congress, in Sanaa, Ibb, Amran, and other Yemeni cities for celebrating or encouraging the Yemeni people to celebrate the revolution.
The Yemeni revolution, which began in 1962 in northern Yemen, overthrew the Zaidi Imamate rulers who had controlled the region for centuries and established the Yemen Arab Republic.
According to Yemenis, the Houthis and the Zaidi Imamates shared similar radical ideologies that restricted Yemen’s rule to Hashemite families.
On Tuesday, local media and activists reported that two journalists were among dozens of tribal leaders, politicians, activists and other Yemenis kidnapped by the Houthis in Sanaa, Ibb, Dhamar, Amran and Hodeidah for expressing their support for the revolution on Facebook or WhatsApp.
Despite the ongoing crackdown, the Houthis on Thursday declared a public holiday to commemorate the 1962 revolution.
Speaking about the Houthi crackdown on revolution supporters, Yemen Shura council speaker Ahmed Obeid bin Dagher said that a revolution is “in the making” in Houthi-held areas that will end Houthi rule and that they will not stop it, according to the official news agency SABA.
Rashad Al-Alimi, meanwhile, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, has urged the UN to relocate its agencies’ offices from Houthi-held Sanaa to the southern city of Aden, the country’s interim capital, to protect its employees from Houthi harassment and to stop dealing with the central bank in Sanaa.
Al-Alimi, who is in New York for the UN General Assembly, told Joyce Msuya, the UN acting undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, that the UN should move its agencies’ headquarters in Yemen from Sanaa to Aden and transfer funds through the central bank in Aden rather than the central bank in Sanaa in order to strengthen the Yemeni riyal and cut off Houthi financial flows.
The Houthis have abducted at least 70 Yemeni employees from UN agencies, international rights and aid organizations, and diplomatic missions in Sanaa on charges of spying for the US and Israel, as well as trying to destabilize the country’s health, education and agriculture sectors.
