Name: Nashwan Moqbel Saeed Saif

Arrestee: Houthi group

Date of arrest: March 2017

The monitoring team saw evidence of torture on the head of the marginalized Nashwan Saeed including wounds on his knees, as well as holes in his leg that caused a disability in his right limb. They also observed the marks of nail removal from his feet and flesh stripping from his thighs. Additionally, the team obtained a medical report from a government hospital indicating that Nashwan Saeed suffers from chronic liver fibrosis with ascites resulting from liver poisoning.

Speaking to the team before his death, Nashwan Saeed recounted the details of what happened to him after he was kidnapped by Houthi members at a checkpoint in the Al-Hawban area, east of Taiz, and taken to the residential city of Al-Saleh, which they turned into their largest prison in the country:  "At midnight, Houthi investigators came to me. They blindfolded me, tied my hands behind my back, and chained my legs. They demanded that I join their fight, but I refused. They threatened to frame me with multiple charges. I told them that I would never enlist. Enlisting is a matter of conviction, not coercion. In response, the investigator sneered, 'It's clear that you're stubborn,' and they began to torture me.

On the first night, they brought pliers and violently ripped off the nails from my hands and feet. The pain was excruciating, and blood was flowing. It caused me intense agony, and I couldn't sleep because of it."

The Houthis refer to the marginalized individuals, including Nashwan, as "Bilal’s grandsons," which is a reference to Bilal al-Habashi, one of the companions of Prophet Muhammad. Bilal was a dark-skinned companion who was tortured by the Quraysh in the hot sands of Makkah during the time of Ramadan. It appears that the Houthis use this designation to evoke the emotions of marginalized Yemenis and mobilize them to the frontlines of the conflict in support of the Houthi group's ideology. This ideology is based on a hierarchical system outlined in the document known as the "Divine Selection," which portrays them as a unique and superior human group compared to others.

Nashwan Saeed's refusal to enlist with the Houthis was indeed shocking to the group. 

"They came back to me the other day and offered me to enlist, but I refused too, so they beat me with a wooden stick and left."

The Houthis found it difficult to tame the marginalized individual through torture.

"When the Prophet Muhammad began his call, the Quraysh tortured the Prophet's companions. One of the most well-known methods of torture was inflicted upon Bilal al-Habashi during the scorching heat of midday. They placed rocks on his chest, aiming to break his spirit and force him to abandon the new religion preached by Muhammad. In defiance of their idol worship, as Bilal endured the torment, he would repeatedly recite the following words:

Ahad, Ahad .. Ahad, Ahad.

To some extent, the method of torturing Bilal Al-Habashi is similar to the method of torturing Nashwan Saeed, who belongs to the category that the Houthis call Bilal’s grandsons, on the third day in Al-Saleh detention center, they came with a ‘silencer" of a very hot car: «They put him in the inside of the knee muscle while I was in a sitting position, then they bend my head and back on my thighs, and they put a number of stones on my back, and they ordered me to stand, and I couldn’t, they increase the number of stones on my back, they remove meat from my thighs and legs, then they come with a hard and sharp instrument and beat it on my head."

There is nothing in historical accounts that indicates the torture of Bilal al-Habashi by piercing his leg with a sharp hard object, 14 centuries ago the methods of torture were not developed in the Arab valley, including the desert inhabited by Quraysh, unlike what the Houthis who tortured Nashwan: «I was tortured with electricity, by a sharp instrument they implant on my leg, and they bring a screwdriver and insert it into the hole that was drilled with drill so that they can enjoy my pain more».

The Houthis continued to torture Nashwan in this way for three weeks, after which they threw him in a solitary cell, in which he suffered liver poisoning “my body was swollen, and my testicles were swollen due to beatings, heat, dirty clothes, lack of movement or exposure to sunlight, I was not rescued or given any medicines despite their knowledge of the complications of torture on my body and body systems."

A year and six months after his abduction, they took him out of the cell at six in the evening, put a blanket over his eyes and carried him over the trunk of a car belonging to them, they drove him to an area called "Shibam" that belongs to Ibb governorate: «They threw me there on the side of the road, one of the motorcyclists passed by me and carried me to Al-Thawra Hospital in Ibb city, and I underwent surgery for the testicles, I stayed for about a month until I was able to get out, so one of the bus drivers took me to my family in the city of Taiz».

* Nashwan Saeed died on April 29, 2019, and in a statement, the Association of Mothers of Detainees, Taiz branch, held the Houthi group responsible for his death.