Dubai: A group of Yemeni activists have launched a multilingual campaign calling for the release of thousands of Yemenis arbitrarily imprisoned by Al Houthi militias and its supporters from the forces loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, according to a news report.
The group, which includes politicians and journalists from inside and outside Yemen, is launching the campaign on Facebook and Twitter in several languages, including English and French, with the aim of shedding light on “this disturbing legal and humanitarian” issue, said organisers.
The fate of thousands of Yemenis who were kidnapped and detained in the prisons under the control of Al Houthi militias, is “greatly ignored” by the United Nations and international organisations, added the organisers.
“It (the campaign) shows one of the most dangerous crimes of the (Al Houthi) militias in Yemen,” said Yemeni journalist Mohammad Al Salehi. “It is the issue of the kidnapped (detainees), and the torture they are facing in the absence of a legal system which guarantees them justice and the right to punish criminals,” Salehi added in a statement carried by Islam Today website.
The campaign is an attempt “to deliver the voice of those arbitrarily detainees and those missing to the world”, added Ali Al Faqih, a Yemeni journalist. This is why the campaign was launched in several languages. The campaigns use the hashtags #ReleaseDetainees and #FreedomForAbductees.
As many as 2,478 people are still imprisoned in Al Houthi jails, after the release of 4,571 in the past few months, according to human rights reports.
Releasing all detainees has been high on the agenda of the Hadi government before reaching any peaceful settlement to the Yemeni crisis.
The Al Houthi militia, which is supported by Iran, has repeatedly promised to release top level Yemeni officials that it detains, including the defence minister Mohammad Qahtan. It has, however, failed to deliver, and continues to reject visits of the detainees’ relatives and refuses to offer any information related to the status of the detainees or their conditions.
Al Houthis have been the target of the attacks of the Saudi-led Arab coalition for nearly 10 months, which aims to restore the government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Recently, the militia released several political leaders who oppose its takeover of the country. Among the released was Minister of Education, Abdul Razaq Al Ashwal and four of the leaders of the Islamic political party of Al Islah.
However, Al Houthi fighters immediately resumed their “kidnapping” raids and “arbitrary detentions” and imprisoned 48 people from one of the villages in the north of the Yemeni capital of Sana’a and sent them to different prisons, added the report of Islam Today.
