Dungeons of Death!

Torture in Yemen

The Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations (YCMHRV), has documented 813 cases of torture against detainees in Yemen during the period from December 2014 till December 2016. Including 774 committed by Houthis and Saleh militias in 20 Yemeni governorates, 30 torture cases in prisons of the government authorities, especially in Aden and Hadhramout governorates, 5 torture cases committed by members of Qaeda and 4 cases by unknown entities.

The southern Lahaj governorate came first in term of the number of documented torture cases with 168 cases, followed by Hodeida governorate, Sana’a, the capital, Dhamar, Taiz and Ibb in central Yemen, Sana'a, Shabwa, Aden, Al Baidha, Sa’da, Hadhramout, Amran, Raima, Al Jouf, Addalie, Hajjah, Mareb, Abyan and Al Mahwet.

In relation to that, Yemeni Coalition monitors documented 116 death cases among Yemeni abductees and detainees, including 107 deaths in prisons of the Houthis and Saleh militias during the reporting period.

Number of death cases under torture in prisons of the Houthis and Saleh militias were 44 out of 51 cases. The rest were committed by the other perpetrators including 5 cases in prisons of the so-called Al-Qaeda and one case of in prisons of the government authorities, in addition to one case whose perpetrators are still unknown.

The Yemeni Coalition monitors also documented 44 cases of execution using live ammunition against detainees in prisons, in addition to 14 death cases resulted from using abductees as human shields by Houthis and Saleh militias in many Yemeni governorates, mainly in Dhamar.

Additionally, the team documented 7 death cases of civilian detainees in prisons of the Houthis and Saleh militias because of deterioration of their health conditions and denial of health care. Including 4 deaths whom Houthis and Saleh militias claimed their death to natural reasons, due to heart attacks or sudden strokes, and two cases claimed to have committed suicide, while their families confirmed to our monitors that that they have been subjected to cruel torture.

Cases of abuse, physical and psychological torture documented by YCMHRV monitors, against Yemeni detainees and abductees in 21 governorates during the report period has reached 519 cases, 489 of which in Houthis and Saleh militias’ prisons, 29 torture cases in government’s prisons in Aden, Lahaj and Hadhramout governorates, in addition to one case whose whereabouts or perpetrators is unknown until the time of preparing the report.

Torture, physical and psychological abuse in Houthis and Saleh militias’ prions, caused amnesia to 6 Yemeni detainees and loss of "sight and hearing" senses, for 7 other detainees, most of whom are in Taiz and Lahaj governorates, in addition to 4 detainees suffering Quadriplegia as a result of the torture and 168 cases of injuries as a result of using Yemeni detainees and abductees as human shields by Houthis and Saleh militias against airstrikes of the Arab Coalition forces.

Laboring categories received the biggest share of documented torture cases with 206 cases followed by military individuals with 155 cases, then activists with 146 cases followed by politicians with 131 torture cases.

The number of educators who were tortured in Yemen during the period of the report were 43 teachers, instructors, principals, and deputy principals. Also 30 media professionals, 25 students, 23 children and 24 tribal sheikhs were victims of torture in Yemen according to the statistics and figures documented in this report.

The Yemeni Coalition Team documented six torture cases against doctors, five cases against lawyers, other five cases against mosque preachers, three torture cases against engineers and two torture cases against women in the governorates of Hajjah and Amanat Al Asimah.

It is worth mentioning that the published numbers in this report do not cover all the torture cases in Yemen but only the cases that were possible to investigate by the monitoring team of the Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations. The team was not able in many cases of reaching many torture cases because they are in areas under the control of Houthis and Saleh militias, which refuses to allow prating any human rights activity in its areas, or also because families of victims refuse in some cases to provide any information or data on what their sons experienced because they fear the retribution of the perpetrating entities.

International and local human rights organizations have announced previously that there were 4698 cases in 484 public and private prisons of the Houthis and Saleh militias, distributed in 20 Yemeni governorates, during the period from July 2014 till mid of 2016.