SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties said in a statement today, Wednesday, August 12, 2020 that the Saudi authorities are detaining hundreds of Yemenis in a prison run by the Saudi Air Force, which lacks the minimum standards of prisons, and where torture and ill-treatment are practiced systematically and regularly.

 

SAM confirmed that it had obtained information confirming that Yemeni detainees were subjected to torture in Saudi prisons by Saudi soldiers and officers, as electrical equipment is used for torture and some detainees are subjected to isolation for a period of up to months, and they are denied communication, and they are deprived of healthcare.

 

Tawfiq Al-Humeidi, head of SAM Organization, said that among the detainees were recruits who were fighting in the southern borders of Saudi Arabia against the Houthis, more than 500 recruits, of whom 28 were arrested due to their request for leave during the past Eid al-Fitr holidays, and their detention facility is not subject to any form of judicial supervision.

 

The detainees are Yemeni fishermen who were detained by the Yemeni Coast Guard forces for unknown reasons, and handed over to the Saudi forces, and SAM obtained information confirming the death of at least one of them due to the torture they were subjected to in the Saudi prison.

 

SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties has documented cases by former detainees at the Air Force Prison, who spoke of the cruel and inhuman treatment of detainees by the detention facility administration and officials during their detention, where they were tortured by crucifixion and beatings with electric cables. Among the detainees whose case was documented, Ahmed Saleh Al-Fateqi and Ali Al-Komani, who are still in detention and subjected to torture on a daily basis, were previously held in solitary confinement cells for months before their investigations which is accompanied by torture.

 

One of the released detainees says: “Most of the arrests are made with a tip from the brigade command, where they take you with hand and feet cuffed, and blindfolded to the unknown, then put you in a solitary cell for a month or less, which is about two meters by a meter; A month of solitary confinement, they tie you with iron and put a strap on your eyes, then they bring you before an investigation committee that accuses you of all kinds of charges and tortures you with electric wires until you hope for death.

 

Another witness says: “I met a detainee who was taken from the wounded enter in Jizan, and he was supposed to travel to India for treatment, but instead of going to India he went to the Air Force Detention Center and was severely tortured during his detention, for a period of three months.

 

SAM Organization confirmed that detainees do not receive health care or healthy food. One former detainee stated: “The food that offered us is one piece of bread with a little lentils or beans in the morning and also in the evening, and in the afternoon there was a little rice with fish, some were falling unconscious during prayer; food is often without salt, and when we ask for salt, they respond to us, "You do not deserve."

SAM said that under international human rights law, enforced disappearance is the authorities' arrest of a person and denial of his detention, or failure to reveal his fate or whereabouts, and forcibly disappeared persons are more vulnerable to torture and ill-treatment, and therefore SAM holds the Saudi and Yemeni authorities responsible for detaining and hiding Yemeni citizens in the air forces' detention camp, and calls for the immediate release of all detainees or transfer them to the Yemeni police and judicial institutions if they are accused of committing acts contrary to the law, SAM also called for an investigation to be undertaken regarding the disappearance of many Yemenis in Saudi prisons during the last period.