Yemen offers prisoner swap with Al Houthis
‘They kept me awake for eight days, with sessions of torture every 15 minutes’
Yemen’s Minister of Information, Muammar Al Eryani, and Minister of Human Rights, Dr Mohammad Askar, have offered the Iranian-backed Al Houthi militia a prisoner exchange deal on the occasion of Ramadan. The two ministers also called for the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent to serve as an intermediary between the two parties.
“The Yemeni government is ready to release all Al Houthi prisoners if Houthis agree to release all the kidnapped, arrested Yemenis and other foreign captives,” Askar said in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
Al Eryani said President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi has directed the government to agree to the exchange of all prisoners in return for the release of all prisoners and abductees in the prisons of Al Houthi militia.
14 journalists held captive
“We know of 14 journalists who are being held captive by Al Houthis, but there are many more cases that are not reported” he said.
“We have issued repeated calls for the United Nations and international NGOs to help us negotiate their release. On the occasion of Ramadan, we renew this call.”
Yemeni journalist and political activist Jamal Al Maamari, released on April 1 from Al Houthi prison as part of a prisoner swap with Yemen, testified at the conference.
“After I was arrested, they beat me until they thought I was dead, and threw me into the morgue. I was lucky to have survived. They were surprised that I did not die and brought me back to the torture rooms. Then they kept me awake for eight days — with sessions of torture taking place every 15 minutes,” Al Maamari said, according to the report from the Centre for International Communication (CIC).
Three years of torture at the hands of Al Houthis in unofficial prison facilities left Al Maamari paralysed.
The extensive torture programme in Al Houthi prisons not only targeted Yemenis but foreigners as well, including a couple of western UN contractors who were Maamari’s cellmates. One of them, John Hamen, was beaten to death in custody, he said.
Al Maamari said Hamen was allegedly tortured and killed by Hamdi Ali Sofiyan, Al Houthi militia’s security officer; and Attalah Ali Khatira, who also goes by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad Razehi, the director of the prison where Al Maamari and others were held. He blamed Iran and its Al Houthi proxy for the torture.
He named his captors as Mehdi Mohammad Jarfan, Jasem Jarfan and Ali Hussain Al Marrani, who belonged to the Al Houthi security department.