Rights group: 113 detainees killed under torture in Houthi prisons

More than 100 Yemeni detainees have been killed at the hands of the Houthi rebels, a human rights organisation has said.

Netherlands-based Rights Radar said that 113 detainees have been killed by the Houthi rebel group while being tortured since the Houthi takeover of Yemen's capital Sanaa in September 2014, with some cases of fatal torture falling under the radar of war crimes.  

Rights Radar described the case of A'ayedh al-Tuwayti who was just 35 years old when he was killed through torture in a Houthi prison in the city of al-Radhma, located in the central province of Ibb.

According to the organisation, Houthi gunmen kidnapped al-Tuwayti on November 19, 2017, at a Houthi checkpoint in the city of Demt, Dhalea governorate, as he was making his way to his hometown Yareem, in Ibb. He was reportedly tortured and killed days later.

"Al-Tuwayti died on November 22, 2017, after having been subjected to brutal torture for three days in the Houthi detention centre in al-Radhma, Ibb governorate. His family received his body from the Houthi militants at the end of December 2017 and buried him on 1 January, 2018", a security source told Rights Radar.

A medical source said "the injuries on al-Tuwayti's body demonstrated that he had been subjected to physical torture, severe beating, wounding with sharp instruments and burning with boiling water that changed the colour of the skin of his body and caused deformities of his body shape".

In response to the findings, Rights Radar spokesman Gerard van der Kroon told The New Arab: "It is not only the Saudis that cause a lot of misery, but also the Houthis by using people as human shields and hiding in populated locations like neighbourhoods, schools, mosques, etc.

"The warring parties are entangled in a spiral of violence that the world, as a third party, needs to break through."
Rights Radar estimated the Houthis have held around 7,000 detainees which are distributed over 643 illegal prisons and detention centres across Yemen.

Most of these detainees are associated with the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Yemeni Islah Party, according to the organisation.

The number of detainees has grown in recent months after a spat between the Houthis and former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, assassinated by the rebels on December 4. Saleh's loyalists have been targets of the Houthis.

Van der Kroon added: "The persistence of the international community's silence over these grave violations of human rights and breaches of international legislation pertaining to war crimes in Yemen encourages perpetrators to repeat and continue their malpractices.

"The international community should do anything that is in their power to stop these horrific crimes."