Skip to main content

'Just let him die': Yemeni prisoners describe horrific torture in Houthi jails


'Just let him die': Yemeni prisoners describe horrific torture in Houthi jails

Former detainees open up about life-changing torture injuries, including being left paralysed or unable to speak, while peace talks between Yemen's warring factions continue

Civilians in Yemen have described torture at the hands of the Houthi rebels including being strung up by their genitals and doused in acid.

Their horrific testimonies emerged as tense peace talks in Sweden between the country’s warring factions entered a second day.

The gruesome accounts underscore the importance of a massive UN-backed prisoner swap that was signed on Thursday by the Iran-backed rebels and Yemen’s recognised government, who have been fighting since March 2015.

According to the deal, some 5,000 prisoners from both sides will be released as a confidence-building measure to bolster the peace negotiations, which kicked off north of Stockholm this week.

Since the start of the three-and-a-half-year civil war, more than 18,000 people are believed to have been locked up by the Houthi fighters and many of them tortured.

Torture has also been recorded by rights groups in prisons run by the Yemeni government and its Gulf allies, including the United Arab Emirates.

Farouk Baakar, a Yemeni medic at al-Rashid hospital in north Yemen, was arrested by seven militiamen in 2016 after treating a man who had been tortured and shot by the Houthis.

Mr Baakar told Associated Press (AP) he was held for 18 months in Houthi-controlled prisons, including in the “Pressure Room”, the basement of a 500-year-old Ottoman castle in the Red Sea city of Hodeidah. There he said he was stripped, whipped and his nails and hair were pulled out. He was later splashed with melted plastic, beaten and chained to a ceiling by his wrists for 50 days until his captors thought he was dead.

It was so painful, especially when they come the next days and press on the bruises with their fingers,” he said.


The doctor described trying to treat other prisoners held with him who had been tortured, with makeshift tools such as electrical wire.

One man said he had been hung by his penis and testes and was unable to urinate. Another’s buttocks had been sealed after the Houthi guards doused his back with acid, melting his skin. Mr Baakar described using wire to help him make an opening and remove excrement.

“When I asked Houthi guards for help, saying the man is dying, their only answer was: ‘Let him die’,” Mr Baakar added.

The doctor was released last December after his family paid 5.5 million rials, about $8,000 at the time, and fled to Marib, an anti-Houthi stronghold in central Yemen where he now lives in a tent.

He is one of 23 people interviewed by AP who either survived or witnessed torture in Houthi detention centres.

The testimonies come just months after both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused the UAE, and its allied Yemeni forces, of torturing detainees in their secret prisons in the south of Yemen.

In those prisons, the rights groups said people had been electrocuted, stripped, caned and whipped.

The UAE is part of a Saudi Arabia-led alliance that launched a bombing campaign in March 2015 to oust the Houthi rebels, who had swept control of the country, forcing recognised Yemeni president Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee.

That triggered a nearly four-year war that has sparked the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in terms of numbers.

The UN’s envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, warned this week that half of the country’s 30 million population could be at risk of famine if the conflict does not end immediately.

As many as 16,000 civilians have been killed, according to the UN. On Friday it said at least 1,500 civilians were killed or injured between August and October alone: an average of 123 civilian casualties every week.

The UN hopes the peace talks in Stockholm will at least lead to a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid groups to access the most devastated areas. They are the first talks since 2016.

The prisoner swap will see the release of detainees, people who have been forcibly disappeared and those under house arrest.

The International Red Cross said it would oversee the exchange, which is expected to take weeks.

When I asked Houthi guards for help, saying the man is dying, their only answer was: ‘Let him die’

Farouk Baakar

On Friday, Yemen’s recognised government proposed reopening the Houthi-held airport in the capital Sanaa on the condition that planes are first inspected in the airports of Aden or Sayun which are under its control. This would help alleviate the humanitarian suffering.

All sides have repeatedly denied allegations of torture in their detention centres.

In July, the UAE said it believed the accusations against it to be “politically motivated to undermine its efforts as part of the Arab coalition to support the Yemeni government”.

The Houthi human rights ministry meanwhile said in a statement in late 2016 that “there is no policy or systematic use of torture on prisoners”. It added that the ministry and prosecutors are working to “ensure the rights of prisoners and provide all legal guarantees to achieve justice and fair trials”.

But civilians and aid workers tell a different story.

The Abductees’ Mothers Union, an association of female relatives of detainees jailed by the Houthis, said that of the 18,000 prisoners they have documented, at least 1,000 were tortured in a network of secret prisons.

Sabah Mohammed, a representative of the group in the city of Marib which is now under government control, said at least 126 prisoners have died from torture since the Houthis took over Sanaa in late 2014.

Anas al-Sarrari, 26, a critic of Houthi brutality, said he is now wheelchair-bound after being paralysed by the torture he suffered in a prison in Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa.

He told AP he was strung up for 23 hours a day until the handcuffs sliced his wrists. After being beaten with a stun gun, he could no longer use his legs. No one helped him get to the bathroom, so he was forced to urinate and defecate on himself until he was released.

“To see people with disabilities, coming out of prison after excessive torture will terrify everyone – ‘Look, this will happen to you if you speak up’,” he said.

Another former prisoner, Hussein, a teacher from the northern city of Dhamar, told AP he was held blindfolded in an underground cell for four months and 22 days. Throughout his confinement, he said, his jailers beat him with iron rods and told him he was going to die.

Monir al-Sharqi, a lab technician who disappeared for a year, meanwhile was tortured so badly he can no longer speak. His family believe he was tortured by the Houthis for his activism, after he was found dumped by the side of a river with horrific wounds

Meanwhile in southern Yemen, where the recognised government and its UAE backers are in control, former detainees told of their torture.

One prisoner, Adel al-Hassani, was held in Bir Ahmed prison in the southern port city of Aden. He told Channel Four this week that Emirati guards electrocuted him in his genital area while he was hung from the ceiling.

“When the night comes in the UAE prisons, you hear the screams everywhere,” said the former pro-government soldier who was arrested after he became critical of the Emirati intervention in Yemen.

He added: “Some guys are dangled or suspended. Others are electrocuted, and others stripped or kicked.”

He said he was also bound by his hands and legs, blindfolded and put in a narrow hole in the desert nicknamed the “monster hole”, for 48 hours where he nearly died.

A report written by a UN panel of experts in August concluded that all sides in the conflict may have committed war crimes. UN experts visited the Bir Ahmed prison, where it said detainees described being sexually assaulted and even raped.





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

"Sims acquired a total of eleven women slaves with vesicovaginal fistula from their masters by promising to lodge, board, and treat them, and he built a spartan wooden building, where he conducted surgical experiments on them for the next four years.

"Sims acquired a total of eleven women slaves with vesicovaginal fistula from their masters by promising to lodge, board, and treat them, and he built a spartan wooden building, where he conducted surgical experiments on them for the next four years.  During the Victorian period, layers of dress signaled sexual chastity, and doctors were not in the habit of viewing women's unclothed bodies; not even their professional stature gave them license to gaze at women's genitalia. When Sims undertook his fistula experiments, even the term 'gynecology' was a few years in the future. Instead, 'women's doctors' averted their eyes in a chivalrous fashion as they knelt to tend to the modestly clothed ladies of their class, relying upon their sense of touch beneath voluminous Victorian skirts.  However, Sims, working with enslaved blacks, was constrained by no such delicacy. He made the women undress completely, then kneel on hands and knees while he and several phys...

Jong Sang Thaek’s brutal execution: Stripped naked and eaten alive by Dogs

Jong Sang Thaek’s brutal execution: Stripped naked and eaten alive by Dogs North Korea, Jan 03:  Unlike previous executions of political prisoners, the execution of Jang Song Thaek on December 12 was reportedly one of the most brutal ones ever conducted by the North Korean regime. According to a detailed account published in Wen Wei Po, a Hong Kong based Chinese newspaper, Jang Song Thaek, Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-Un’s uncle and the second most powerful man in North Korea, was stripped naked and thrown into a cage of 120 hounds who had been starved for three days. During the brutal execution, which was reportedly personally overseen by Kim Jong Un, the hounds were allowed to prey on Jang Song Thaek and five of his closest aides who also had been stripped and thrown into the cage. According to the report, the entire process lasted for about an hour by the end of which they were completely eaten up. This is called "quan je" or "execution by dogs". Political...

A graduate in Biology was having difficulty in finding a job. He saw an advert in one of the daily newspapers for a job at a zoo.šŸ—ž️šŸ‘€

  A graduate in Biology was having difficulty in finding a job. He saw an advert in one of the daily newspapers for a job at a zoo.šŸ—ž️šŸ‘€ In the interview, the manager told him that their gorillašŸ¦, which had been a tourists attraction has died so they needed someone to dress up and pretend as a gorillašŸ¦.  The graduate was embarra$$ed, but since the salary was okay, he accepted the job. The first day, he put on the gorilla skin and entered the cage, he started jumping up and down, beating his chest and roared like a gorilla.  The next day, he put on a gorilla skin and started moving around the zoo again and mistakenly entered another cage and found himself staring at a lion🦁.  The lion r0ared and rushed towards him. The scared graduate quickly forgot that he is a g0rilla and started shouting like a human, šŸ—£️"Help! Help!" The lion leaped onto him, knocked him to the ground and whispered in his earšŸ‘‚*Dennis*, it's me Mike, your course mate." My brother, No job in thi...

Man s-xu#lly A$$@ults homeless woman in Brazil. Another demonstration of a shitty third world country.

  Man s-xu#lly A$$@ults homeless woman in Brazil. Another demonstration of a shitty third world country. Man sexually assaults homeless woman in Brazil. Another demonstration of a shitty third world country. NEWS: In the video images obtained this Saturday – May 4, 2024 – it is possible to see the man touching the private parts of a homeless woman who apparently sleeps on the street. Didn’t she feel touched? The Public Secretariat of SĆ£o Paulo, Brazil, analyzes the images and asks for public help in identifying the attacker. Rape is a serious violation of human rights and a devastating crime that affects individuals, families, and communities worldwide. To put a stop to rape, we need to address its root causes and work together to create a society that values and respects consent, equality, and the dignity of all individuals. Here are some steps we can take: 1. *Educate and raise awareness*: Teach children and adults about consent, healthy relationships, and gender equality....

World War II as you've NEVER seen it before! Light-hearted photos of nude British and Allied soldiers revealed in eye-opening new book

  World War II as you've NEVER seen it before! Light-hearted photos of nude British and Allied soldiers revealed in eye-opening new book From the horrors of the Blitz to kamikaze attacks in the Pacific, World War II inflicted terrible suffering on troops and civilians alike. But as these photos reveal, soldiers fighting the war, whether in the Far East or Europe, did enjoy some more light-hearted moments. Hidden away in the attics of former servicemen for more than 60 years, the pictures, which show soldiers from the UK, Australia and the USA among others, shed fresh light on the friendships fostered between the men who fought. His extensive collection includes snapshots of soldiers and sailors from Australia, the UK, France, Italy, Poland, Russia, and the USA, cavorting on the sand in the South Pacific, shivering in the snow of Eastern Europe, posing solo in the barracks, and in great happy groups. Many are barely out of boyhood, at their physical peak and are responding to...

DOZENS OF MEN SAY SRI LANKAN FORCES R*P£D AND TORTURED THEM – ABC NEWS

  DOZENS OF MEN SAY SRI LANKAN FORCES R*P£D AND TORTURED THEM – ABC NEWS One of the men tortured in Sri Lanka said he was held for 21 days in a small dank room where he was raped 12 times, burned with cigarettes, beaten with iron rods and hung upside-down. Another man described being abducted from home by five men, driven to a prison, and taken to a “torture room” equipped with ropes, iron rods, a bench and buckets of water. There were bl00d splatters on the wall. A third man described the prisoners as growing accustomed to the sound of screaming. “It made us really scared the first day but then we got used to it because we heard screaming all the time.” R*ped, branded or beaten repeatedly, more than 50 men from the Tamil ethnic minority seeking political asylum in Europe say they were abducted and tortured under Sri Lanka’s current government. The previously unpublished accounts conjure images of the country’s bl00dy civil war that ended in 2009 — not the palm-fringed paradise...

Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Rape Scene), 1973

 Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Rape Scene), 1973 "Untitled (Rape Scene) is the documentation of an action that the artist performed in her apartment in Iowa City, while she was a student at the University of Iowa on the innovative Intermedia art course run by the German artist Hans Breder (born 1935).  It was created in response to a brutal and highly publicised rape and murder of a nursing student, Sara Ann Otten, by another student in March 1973. The following month Mendieta invited her fellow students to her apartment where, through a door left purposefully ajar, they found her in the position recorded in this photograph, which recreated the scene as reported in the press.  Some time later, Mendieta recalled that her audience ‘all sat down, and started talking about it. I didn’t move. I stayed in position about an hour. It really jolted them.’ (Quoted in Ana Mendieta, p.127, note 11.) In 1980, she commented that the rape had ‘moved and frightened’ her, elaborating: ‘I think ...

The Effurun POLICE STATION, Wado City, Delta State found four h3ads in a student's bag last night around 11pm.

WHAT A SAD NEWS  😭 😭😭😭😭 The Effurun POLICE STATION, Wado City, Delta State found four h3ads in a student's bag last night around 11pm. A young man, about  30 years, with a large handbag, got into a KEKE NAPEP lastnight. The vigilant driver smelled a strong odor coming from the youngster's bag. The horrible smell made the driver to suspect something. When the driver arrived at Effurun POLICE STATION area , he set off the alarm, held the young guy and alerted  the police to search the young man's bag. Many people were afraid.  One of the Police was shocked when he opened the young man's bag and found four heads in the young man's bag. After examination of the heads, it was found that the heads were well known. It was TECNO CHARGER HEAD,  SAMSUNG CHARGER HEAD, ITEL CHARGER HEAD and ORAIMO CHARGER HEAD and iru (locust beans).  Thank God IPhone Charger head is not there.   I appreciate your efforts to read this.  You can continue with what yo...

This is the Mitsubishi Dialtone D160, the largest subwoofer ever built, with 60 inches in the 1980s.

This is the Mitsubishi Dialtone D160, the largest subwoofer ever built, with 60 inches in the 1980s.  Weighing 800kg, it can easily shatter windows and produces small earthquakes that can be felt like ground vibrations within a 2-kilometer range. At the Koriyama factory, the test was conducted at first in the measuring room, but was stopped because the ceiling lamps fell due to vibration. The outdoor test appeared to have a negative impact on the neighborhood. At a distance of about 100 m from the speaker, the sound was felt, but at a greater distance, it was transmitted as vibration and noise on the earth instead of an audible sound.  Within a 2-kilometer radius of the factory, damage such as vibrations, small earthquakes, as well as noises from walls and windows occurred

My Shocking Experience With Patient In A Hospital

  My Shocking Experience With Patient In A Hospital I once cared for a middle-aged patient who presented to emergency with a dildo-related very embarrassing situation. He purchased the toy for one of his sexcapades. Curiosity hit. And he shoved the damn thing in his pooper, high-high up! “Me first” attitude didn’t do him much good. Funny feelings subsided fairly quickly and the horror struck when he couldn’t get it out. His drainage was jammed, the toy was slipping further up and after about 24 hours of wishfully waiting for it to naturally pass, it hurt bad enough to seek medical help. The official party line, that he vehemently iterated, was I just fell onto it, how else do you think it got up there! Needless to say, emergency surgery was necessary and he landed in the ICU with sepsis related post-op complications. It took him loooong before being able to use the toilet normally! Google ** NOT the patient’s X-ray, but it looked similar** Though I have seen some really absurd stuf...