Human Rights Report monitors Houthi crimes in detention centers and prisons
The Human Rights Watch Coalition, or the Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations in Yemen, has documented that 1,635 abductees were subjected to various kinds of physical and psychological torture in Houthi detention centers over the past six years.
According to a report issued yesterday by the coalition, which includes several non-official human rights organizations, the victims include 109 children, 33 women and 78 elderly people in 17 Yemeni provinces, according to Yemen Arab.
Some 1,427 tortured abductees in Houthi prisons, including 100 children, 24 women and 63 elderly people, were left completely paralyzed and partially paralyzed, as were others with chronic diseases, memory loss and visual and hearing disabilities, according to the report.
It said another 208 abductees were subjected to the most severe and deadly torture, including 8 children, 9 women and 15 elderly people, who were killed either inside Houthi cells, or after their health deteriorated, or just days after their release, as militias sought to escape the killing.
The Coalition also warned that a number of those kidnapped in the prisons of the Houthi terrorist militias had been physically eliminated, and others had resorted to suicide to get rid of the cruelty and ugliness of torture by the putschists.
Sanaa topped the rest of Yemen with the rate of torture of detainees in militia prisons.
The Capital Municipality recorded the highest rate of torture of abductees in Houthi prisons, with 430 cases of physical and psychological torture of kidnapped civilians.
According to the report, 12 children, 8 women and 12 elderly people were among those tortured in Sanaa, in addition to 48 abductees who were tortured to death, including 4 elderly people and 8 women, five of whom committed suicide inside the central prison after being raped at gunpoint and severely tortured by Houthi militias.
Hajjah Governorate (north) was the second most affected by 161 cases of physical and psychological torture of abductees in Houthi cells, including 34 children, women and 8 elderly people, and 6 others, including two children and an elderly stabbing man, according to the report.
The report said 113 abductees were followed by Ibb province (central Yemen), where the Houthis committed the most severe forms of psychological and physical torture, in addition to 37 others who died under torture, including three children and two elderly men.
The report documented 110 cases of physical and psychological torture committed by the Houthis against detainees inside their prisons in Hodeida governorate, including 15 children, 6 women, and 4 elderly people, along with 36 other abductees who died under Houthi torture.
In Taiz province, 92 abductees were brutally tortured inside Houthi cells, killing 21, most of them at the notorious Al-Saleh City prison in Al-Hawban district, east of Taiz city, he said.
Houthi militias tortured 52 abductees, including an elderly man, in Dhale governorate, killing four in secret coup detention centers.
The exact number of detainees in Houthi militia prisons is unknown, and the Yemeni government says it has observed more than 350 cases of torture killings in pro-Iranian militia prisons.
The issue of abductees, especially civilians, in Houthi militia prisons is one of the complications of the prisoner deal, as civilian coups take hostages to swap legitimacy with their captured fighters on the front lines.
