MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th May, 2021) A prominent watchdog group on Thursday called on the Houthi-led Yemeni Authority to desist from unlawful detention of minority groups and using arbitrarily detained prisoners as pawns in the current political negotiation.
Earlier on Thursday, Amnesty International released a damning report "Released and Exiled: Torture, unfair trials and forcible exile of Yemenis under Houthi rule," that documents experiences of a minority of non-fighters, including journalists, political opponents, and Baha'i religious minority members, who were released as part of political deals in 2020 after being unlawfully detained and tortured for up to seven years. The report highlights human rights violations like beatings with metal sticks, electric cables, detention in solitary confinement, and how unlawful detainees have been used as political pawns with forcible exile and displacement resulting from negotiated prisoner deals by Houthi de-facto authorities.
The middle East and North Africa Regional Director, Heba Morayef, who condemns such an inhumane deal, laments that detainees find it hard to recover from the multiple years of abuse and torture. Even after release, many were not able to reunite with their families after years of forced separation.
"No one should be forced to choose between staying in unlawful detention or abandoning their home or country.� Under no circumstances should negotiated prisoner release deals explicitly or implicitly allow for released detainees to be forcibly exiled or displaced from their homes," the director said.
As part of the politically negotiated deal co-sponsored by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Houthi officials had released 1,056 prisoners in October 2020, 24 of whom were non-fighters. Previously in July 2020, Houthis released six members of the Baha'i religious minority. Amnesty International's discussion with the released group revealed that 12 of that small group should never have been detained in the first place.
Meanwhile, the court had ordered the release of nine detainees in March and April 2020. However, the Houthi authorities continued to arbitrarily detain them for months afterward, only releasing them later as part of political deals. Eventually, when they were released, the Houthi authorities forced them to leave Yemen, transferring them directly to Sana'a airport to board a UN flight to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. The expelled Baha'is remain banished from Yemen to this day.
While reacting to these violations, Morayef recounts that exile on account of religious beliefs or political opposition constitutes an outrageous violation of human rights law and that the exile of Baha'i detainees violates the prohibition on forced displacement in international humanitarian law and can amount to a war crime. On this note, she called on the Houthi authorities to end the forcible exile and other violations while urging them to allow the exiled individuals to return to their families.
