Geneva - SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties condemned the killing of 28-year-old citizen "Mohsen Muhammad Al-Qadi", inside a prison of the Houthi group in Dhamar Governorate and called for an urgent investigation into the militia's practices towards the individuals it forcibly detained and subjected to inhuman treatment in violation of the rules of international law, especially the Geneva Conventions.
The organization said in a brief statement issued today, Saturday, that Al-Qadi has been detained by the Houthi group for nearly a year and a half after elements affiliated with the group had kidnapped him from his home in the "Azan" neighbourhood and forcibly disappeared him, confirming that his family did not communicate with him, until after the Houthi group called them to tell them that their son had passed away and his body was in Dhamar General Hospital.
For its part, the Houthi group denied that the death of the "judge" had a criminal character as it stated that the cause of death was the result of a gunshot wound by mistake. While local human rights sources suggest that the death of the Yemeni citizen bears a criminal character, especially since the Houthi group's record is full of such incidents. The group deliberately gets rid of its opponents and detainees in this way, and then it claims that the killings were of natural causes or as a result of a mistake, especially since this is the ninth incident during the past year in which a citizen dies inside Houthi prisons due to torture and abuse by individuals that group. The organization also monitored the death of more than 240 detainees since the beginning of the war in Yemen in September 2014.
"SAM" concluded its statement by emphasizing that the Houthi group's practices seriously and disturbingly reflect the brutality that the group pursues against its detainees and forcibly disappeared, calling on the United Nations envoy to Yemen, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Yemen and other international figures to exercise their legal and moral role and put pressure on that militia to stop Its multiple violations and serious crimes against Yemeni civilians.