Men freed in Yemen prisoner swap accuse Houthis of torture
Pro-government fighters held by Yemen’s Houthi rebels are regularly mistreated and tortured, according to detainees released under a historic prisoner exchange.
More than 1,000 prisoners from both sides were freed at the weekend. It was the largest such exchange of the five-year civil war, raising hopes for UNled efforts to broker peace.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which supervised the operation, said planes carrying 352 freed prisoners landed in Sanaa, Yemen’s rebel-held capital, and the southern port city of Aden, the seat of the internationally recognised government, on Friday.
“I spent four years in a cramped room underground,”
Hasan Ibrahim Al Musaiybli, 33, told The National after disembarking at Aden’s airport.
“I was exposed to all horrible types of torture. They repeatedly hung me from the ceiling and slapped my face while inter
rogating me. I spent days and nights without sleeping. They usually came to question us at night so we couldn’t sleep.”
Mr Al Musaiybli, who was captured while fighting the rebels in the Haiys area of Hodeidah province, said he was also repeatedly electrocuted and beaten with batons, causing serious damage to his kidneys.
Putting his crutches to one side to stretch out on a bench in the arrivals hall, Tariq Mohammed Saeed, 26, told The National how he was left with a permanent disability after being denied proper treatment for months following his capture during a raid on rebel positions in southern Hodeidah in 2017.
“The Houthis captured me after I was shot in an offensive we launched to liberate sites under their control in Al Jah area in Beit Al Faqih district,” Mr Saeed said
“They took me to a prison in Hodeidah city, where they gave some first aid. Then they took me to a prison in Sanaa where they left me without any treatment until my wound became inflamed and rotten. After two months they took me to a novice doctor of theirs who carried out an operation which gave me a shortened leg and permanent disability, and severe pain that never stops,” he said.
Still, he is overjoyed to be free and to return to his loved ones. “Getting out of that hell is a relief, despite all the pain and the frustration I feel because of my leg,” he said.
The government has called for the UN and Red Cross to carry out medical checks of the freed prisoners and investigate their accounts of mistreatment by the rebels.
Information Minister Muammar Al Iryani also demanded a “swift, transparent and just investigation” into the deaths of prisoners in Houthi detention, the government’s Saba news agency reported.