Part one: They used my son as a human shield, said Mother of Yemeni martyr

Ma'rib,Yemen – 28 December 2018: “They asked for 150 thousand riyals in return for handing over our relative’s corpse ... Some families cannot pay,” said Abdullah Mamlouk, one of the Houthi militia’s victims.

Mothers of kidnapped and prisoners recount their experiences. The mother of one of the victims of the militia "Haja Alia" revealed that the militia used her son as a human shield in weapon-storage facility and he died. “I did not receive his corpse … I paid 70 thousand riyals to save my second son with the help of tribal mediators, he was released but with problems in Memory and in the leg,” she tells us.





“I paid 11 thousand riyals to see my son behind bars … the price of a phone call is different though,” said the mother of two children who were kidnapped by the militia.

Commenting on this, the Association of Mothers of Detainees and Kidnappers said, “Militias kidnap people from houses and mosques and ordered the execution of 24 kidnappers and tortured more than 100 journalists.”




The torturers in the prisons of Houthi reveal the secrets of torture

Anas Al-Sarari was hit with an electric stick, hanged and forced to stand on his fingertips and on tuna cans.

“They tortured me until I became paralyzed,” Sarari said, continuing, “I founded the Association of the Disabled … Houthis’ curriculums holy Khomeini and Hassan Nasrallah ... Houthis kill and arrest any opponent.”

Building on this, one of the escapees told us, “People died out of torture … they put pieces of meat over our bodies and released dogs on us ... they turned some of the schools in Sanaa secret prisons for torture. Prisoners were paralyzed after being forced to stand on their toes for hours. We slept standing up until we got rheumatism and kidney problems.”



One of those tortured in Houthi prisons said, "There are employees dedicated to slapping the prisoners until they lose consciousness. They used to provide us with one meal every two days from the leftovers of their soldiers' food." To ensure that those released remain silent, they detain one or more of their family members.



Commenting on this, Yemeni Information Minister, said, “Houthi militias commit the worst crimes of torture, kidnapping and murder against journalists ... We seek to expose their crimes before the world ... Moamar Eriani Iran supports the Houthis through financing and infiltrating of international media institutions.”

The Minister of Human Rights also revealed that there has been 2,866 cases of enforced disappearance since the Houthi attack in 2015, 13,938 cases of arbitrary detention, 16,804 cases of torture in militia prisons.


A member of the Association of the Mothers of the Kidnapped "Umm Mansour", “They beat and detained me because of my participation in a peaceful women's demonstration,” adding that someone named "Haj Ali" was beaten to death when he went to ask about his kidnapped son.

Shaima Abdul Hamid, another victim, said, “They hide corpses in secret places, my aunt paid 400,000 riyals other than the commissions of brokers to take the corpse of her son.”

Mohammed al-Sudi, one of those kidnapped, was detained at the National Security Prison in Sana'a and tortured and has been blinded.


The Houthi crimes do not stop with expanding death throughout Yemen, but their militias go beyond that to trade dead bodies and swap them, either with moneys from the victims, or to bargain for the exchange of other bodies or prisoners of resistance.


Dead bodies are for sale or for swap – “We have the best prices” is the Houthi’s business motto. They do not only kidnap the sons of Yemen and forcibly hide them, but they burn the hearts of their mothers and their families by committing double crimes against them, from torture to death, or handicap in the prisons of the so-called Political Security, and to trade their dead bodies, or to bargain their families to release them for money, the value varies depending on the importance of the kidnapped and his status and his family’s rank; it reaches up to $13,000, according to eyewitnesses.





Hamoud Shamsan, a member of the Popular Resistance in Taiz, reported that the people in the city suffered from the exploitation of the corpses by the Houthis and keeping them. The large share of this trade was to the members of the resistance who were martyred in the fronts of Sabr, Shibeeb, and the Directorate of Qubaytah.

He pointed out that the cropses were still in open air under the guarding of their soldiers, or they hide them in secret places until the barter operations are carried out by Houthi prisoners or being bargaining for money. Most of them are carried out by brokers from the Houthi side who are specialized in this trade, which has become their source of income.

Abdullah al-Mamluk, from Taiz, also notes that one of his relatives, Amr Ghanem, was involved in the battles of Hayes. He was killed last year, and he and his father and all his acquaintances were searching for the corpse until they learned that it was being held in hostage. “Brokers or mediators, as they call themselves, told us that the amount required to get the corpse was 150,000 riyals, so the family collected the amount and paid them, and we got the corpse,” he said asserting that the case of Amr is hundreds of cases. Oftentimes, their families cannot pay, and can not receive the corpses of the missing persons.





Abdullah continued, “Among these cases Mohammed al-Hourani, 19 years old, was among the heroic popular resistance in Taiz, and was martyred in a severe battle in the Protocol front 2017, and the Houthis seized the cropse and asked for 200,000 riyals, but his family did not have anything, and they do not know where his corpse is until now. Abdullah asserts that Houthi has brokers acting as mediators in each process.”

Visits have a different price tag to phone calls

Samah Ahmed, mother of Ibrahim, President of the Association of Mothers of Detainees and Kidnappers, spoke abour more facts and details of the Houthi Crime. She pointed out that the Association was formed in April 2016 with just 20 women, with the aim of being a great power against Houthi's oppression. There are 24 other kidnapped persons who have issued death sentences without evidence to condemn them. The Association is also following up on the detention and torture cases of more than 100 journalists in Yemen simply because they express their views freely.

“The Association was formed on the persons doors where mothers and daughters of the prisoners and kidnapped meet to demand the release of their relatives from the prisons of the Houthi group, and also those who have not been prosecuted and have not been legally arrested, but were attacked in their homes, mosques, workplaces or their universities, under the eyes of the people who stand helpless facing this militia,” she said.

"There are thousands of kidnapped in Yemen from 2015 until today, some of them have disappeared forcibly, and no one knows anything about them since their absence," said Samah. "People are going to pay huge amounts of money to the Houthi mediators in order to see their sons on a visit that does not take ten minutes. And there are other prices even for just a phone call, in addition to what they ask to receive the corpse, which they find in a bad condition out of torture and mutilation, and some lose their eyes which is common ». she said noting that the price of the corpse is 70 thousand Yemeni rials for ordinary citizen, and up to 200,000 riyals for political activist, and the amount increases according to family level and degree of relative also.





We found out that mothers who go to ask about their son are subjected to physical assaults in front of the prisons doors."We, as an association, communicate with international human rights organizations, organized more than one protest; they followed us with sticks and other violence tools. However, this did not discourage any member of the association, We have goals to achieve, first exposing Houthi's practices to the world, publishing the stories of our sons and what they are exposed to in the militia prisons, demanding the release of them and know the fate of the disappeared. We organize visits to the families of the kidnapped. We also have a legal center to follow-up the legal authorities concerning physical and psychological violence against our sons. We submitted this to the Human Rights Council, the United Nations and the Security Council.”

Samah Ahmed says she has a personal experience with the kidnapping, as she has two sons kidnapped by the Houthis and recently released.

"They go to their private school in Sana'a as usual. Their age was 16 years and 17 years, In the middle of the school day, the militia attacked a number of schools in Sana'a and kidnapped my sons. they were detained for three weeks. During the first 10 days, they were forcibly hidden. I do not know anything about them, although I went to the national and political security offices and the centers and asked about them. I was walking everywhere searching for them like Crazy.”

"We resorted to people who mediated with the Houthis, they informed us by phone that my sons were in Amran in the stadium of Omran Club. So, we paid money in order to allow us to visit them. I paid 50 thousand Yemeni riyals for each, and I saw them from a distance of 60 meters and between us iron bars and barely saw their faces. They were released after few days with a number of other kidnapped, claiming that it was honored gift from Abdul Malik Houthi on the occasion of Eid al-Adha.”

"My children came out in a very bad psychological condition. They told me that they were 100 children in a small dark room, barely standing in a crowded room with no room for ventilation. They were allowed to go to the toiled once a day. They were given rotten food," she said.

"The boys also told me that the Houthis had brought them religious notebooks and told them to memorize them. They brought a teacher to explain to them, and a day later they asked them whether they memorize them or not, and they punish those who didn’t. They contained wrong interpretations of verses from the Quraan.”

Alia Naji: I paid to save my son

From Samah to the story of Haja Alia Naji, an elderly lady who can barely speak, but she says that she went to the prisons of political and national security in Sanaa in spite of her old age, and participated in the Association of mothers of abductees, to defend her son with all her strength, “I had two children, one 29 years old and the other 23 years old, and they were living in Sana'a, and their big brother was an announcer in a channel that belong to legitimacy, and they wanted to avenge him. So, they kidnapped and hide them. I spent long time searching for them in the prisons of Sana'a and the Central Prison but in vain and I was not allowed to visit them. Then, we knew about the death of one of them and that they used him as a human shield in a weapons storage place. I did’nt take his cropse. As for my other son, I had to pay 70 thousand riyals, with tribal mediation, to save him; he was released but has problems in memory and in the right leg.”



As for why she joined the association, she said: "I do not anyone to panic from losing their children. I wish all children return back to their families, and I must defend the rights of my son to the last minute in my life."

Shaima: They tortured my uncle for two years

Shaima Abdul Hamid, a member of the association, tells the story of her uncle Samir al-Dhibiani with the kidnapping. She said, “The militia kidnapped him from one of the checkpoints. They found with him papers for a conference on peace in Yemen. They accused him of working for the legitimate government and was detained for two years.”





“And interrogations with him are carried out under batons. They also gave him a religious notebooks to make him change his beliefs in accordance with their faith and then put him in the camp of Hibal in Dhamar province as a human shield, but God's will saved him and then he was released,” she said, continuing, “My cousin was also kidnapped and put in the same Camp, but he was martyred and his family was still looking for the corpse. They agreed to pay 400,000 riyals for the corpse of their son who was killed in the camp. The militia took them to a secret place where they hide the wounded who remain without medical care waiting for death. She said pointing out that her aunt told her that the wounded room was adjacent to the corpse room.”





Shaimaa added, “Faced with all these crimes, We are committed to exert every effort to make the world know the issue of the kidnapped and prisoners, and we communicate with Arab and international human rights organizations, the legitimate government, the Security Council and the Red Cross. This resulted in releasing 10 of the kidnapped, as well as taking care of the families of the abductees, providing them with financial support, and helping them to obtain information about their forcibly disappeared children.”

"Umm Mansour": I was beaten and detained

Umm Mansour, a member of the Association, also had a share in the Houthi attack. One day, I went out to participate in a women's demonstration in front of the headquarters of an organization in Hodeidah to demand the release of the abductees and return them to their families. "They attacked us with tear gas and beat us. We were detained at the Criminal Investigation Building in Hodeidah, a person called "Abu Dard" opened a lengthy investigation. They asked us questions of the kind: "Who are you working for? Do you follow the legitimacy, and who is planning the demonstrations?" They threatened us if we went out again in demonstrations that they would kill us. Then, they released us.

Umm Mansour adds that one of the most difficult humanitarian cases was one of the kidnappers named Khalid Haidar, from Dhamar province. “He was tortured with electric sticks until he died. He was an ordinary citizen and never participated in any demonstrations. He had no political or social activity. We tried to communicate with his family to learn more details but they were afraid of the Houthis and refused to speak.”




Ali Mohammed, 35 years old from Ab province, was forcibly disappeared for three days and then was brought to his wife a dead corpse . He was subjected to systematic torture by removing his teeth and left eye. And he died; he was electrocuted to death.

Hajj Ali .. Beaten to Death!

The Houthi militia never respect death, and they have no idea about religions or laws or even rules of war. They do not exclude a woman or an elderly person. The story of al-Haj Ali al-Sudi is the best proof of this. The old man goes out looking for his son, Muhammad, who has been kidnapped for months and did not know where he is. He decided to sit in front of the Political Security Prison in Sana'a so that he may hear about his son something to reassure him. When asked the soldiers about his son, they beat him until he fell unconscious and was taken to the hospital, but he died without realizing his only wish: To see his son.




Anas Al-Sarari ... Torture until disability

The stories and cases of torture by the Houthis have no end, but there are some stories that stopped us for its monstrosity and bitterness. One of the is the story of Anas Al-Sarari, director of the Hope for the Handicapped Association and one of the victims of torture in the Houthis prison. He is half paralyzed as a result of Houthi’s systematic torture. Anas revealed to us many of the secrets of torture used in the prisons of the militia. Anas told us that this is the first time he speaks to the Egyptian media, and told us the details of what he was exposed to, saying, “I was a student in the fourth year of the faculty of Engineering, “civil section,” and I hoped to complete my education and then establish my own business or project.





“I was a student in the fourth year of civil engineering and I hope to complete my education and then establish my own business or project. On September 1, 2015, while I was walk on a street in Sana'a I heard the sound of a 4x4 car, then someone came from my back and hit me on my head and I lost conscious, When I arrived at the Political Security Prison, I was blindfolded.”

“I woke up to them kicking me.”

“I was tortured for two months.”

“I was tortured intensively every day and I was investigated for most of the day.”

“The same questions were repeated to me everyday. I have been asked about my publications on Facebook for years ago and why I oppose them, in addition to many other questions. They forced me to stamp on papers before I open my eyes.”

“Since the Houthis entered Sana'a, their concern is to shut up mouths and kill and arrest anyone who opposes them and their believes. This thought is not accepted by mind based on classification and altering the religious and doctrinal constants. They put me in their prisons because I was a social activist who raised many issues and defended those who have rights. they charged me of disrespect to “Al- Al Bait”, inciting against them, and other charges.”

He continued, “one day during one of the torture sessions, I was hit with a stick in the back of my head; I was in a coma for long time after that, and when I woke up I found myself lying on the ground in a prison, I tried to stand on my feet but I couldn’t. I did not know what happened, I was left for three months, then their doctor came and took me to the hospital. They confirmed that I am paralyzed; they released me after about 9 months.”

He explained that they put him during the first three months in solitary confinement, and his food was either rice mixed with insects or beans with the water of the sewer. He continued, “They brought me books and commissioned a person named Abu Bakil to teach me these materials, which rely on the Shiite ideology and doctrine, and to holy Abdulmalek Houthi, Al Al-Bayt, pay the fifth of all your money, offer your children for recruitment for the sake of Al Al-Bayt. All of their books include insults of Aisha and the prophet’s companions - may Allah be pleased with them. They holy Khomeini and Hassan Nasrallah, and say that the revelation of Quraan was supposed to go to Ali Ibn Abi Taleb and went wrongly to the Prophet. All these doctrines were taught in their notebooks to the recruited children. Anas al-Sarari asserts that he paid $1,000 to Houthi brokers to smuggle his brother so they would not take him into recruitment.”

He pointed out that he was in prison with 15 other people, some of them broken their hands, others’ eyes were taken off, and some were sexually assaulted by inserting the plastic stick from behind, and the injured was then hanged instead of beating. He explained that they imprisoned his brother while he was searching for him to be reassured.

"They always separate brothers or a father and his son if they are imprisoned at the same time. So, I was released while my brother still imprisoned. This is a technique followed by al-Houthi; that before they release any person, they imprison another one from his family or relatives to guarantee his silence and therefore those released are still threatened.”

Al-Sardari asserts that the Houthis trades in the bodies of the dead, especially the prisoners, and each prisoner have a price according to the statue of the person. The leaders are for 4 million riyals and the ordinary person is for one million to one and a half million. , And the only time the United Nations visited prisons was for a British citizen among those who were arrested. He added that the position of international organizations is shameful, and supports the plot instead of condemning them.

Describing the living conditions of the people of Sana’a, he said, “Everyone shuts their mouth, and are humiliated and cannot talk or even just ask about something, for example the gas tank cost was 1,500 a year ago while today is 8,000. People are silent, although the transportation almost completely stopped. Their children die before their eyes due to the lack of medicines and stopping medical care for the poor, yet still silent. Any person from Sana'a is forbidden to travel except with a written permission from the Houthis, and it must be for important and convincing reason for them. Every lane has a Houthi Sheikh who informs the Houthi’s leaders of any information on the movements of anyone in the neighborhood under his control. There are also supervises who report on every person they have. In other words, it is an integrated system to tighten the grip on the people in Sana'a. No one also can go out at evening, otherwise, "depending on your luck" you may be arrested, assaulted, or whatever.”

He pointed out that the Association of Hope for the Disabled aims to integrate the disabled into the society and to provide them with psychological, health and social care and to encourage them to join the labor market, rather than being a burden on the community. It is through this association that we organize different courses for the training of the disabled. For the Houthis, 50 of them were victims of the Marib, Shabwa and Baidaa mines. We have also the Katyusha victims and the victims of random bombings after the war. He continued saying: We are trying, in cooperation with the legitimate government, to provide training centers for these disabled people to rehabilitate the labor market and create opportunities or small projects in which they can work. We try to make the government pass legislation in favor of those disabled, such as to allocate of 5 percent of state jobs for them.

Fleeing from Houthi’s Prisons

Another victim of the Houthis and a survivor from prisons, who asked not to be named for fear from Houthis - the fear that still dominated him and anyone who exprienced the horrors of darkness in the tunnels of Sanaa - especially that his father and brother are still in the grip of the Houthis, spoke to us about the situation in Houthi prisons. He only allowed us to call him “Abou Salah", saying, “I used to work as a driver at private sector, to transport cargoes or garbage. One day, I have a problem with a client from Sham who was a Houthi leader collaborating with the Hawtha. He was transporting supplies on my car for the war of the Houthis. After the problem ended, I went to pray Assr at the mosque but when I finished, the Houthis armed men took to unknown place where I spent 9 months and no one knew my place or anything about me.”



"They assigned a crew especially to torture. I was trapped in a secret basement at the depth of 3 underground floors in the Political Security headquarters in Sana'a. There were 7 persons other than me in a room that does not see light, with a space area of one meter in one meter.. They sent me to secret prisons used for torture that were originally schools Where they detained me for one year and 7 months and were subjected to all forms of torture."

He went on telling about the details of the torture he suffered in Al-Houthi prisons, saying, "We slept standing almost until we suffered from rheumatism and kidneys. I also had a back injury. One of them who was masked used to take me to the interrogation room after he blindfolds me. The interrogations are carried out under torture with electricity and beating with sticks. That was repeated every day as the investigation starts from evening until 1 am, and then go back to the basement.”



"He repeats his questions dozens of times, and if he does not have an answer, he kicks you, then hits you with batons on the back and head so that either you loses consciousness or confess" he said. A significant number of people died in front of my eyes while others went crazy out of torture," he added.

"They have a lot of powerful ways to torture, and every way of torture has a specialized crew, and it varies from one person to another according to the crime committed.”

"For example, during my long stay, I have been deprived from visiting my family. They put pieces of meat on our corpse and shot dogs behind us," he said, continuing, “We were severely injured and some of us also died, they also resort to electric sticks, and roast in a device dedicated to torture, hanging, nail removal and skinning.”

"They also force the prisoner to stand on his fingertips and face the wall for long hours, and they repeat the same process until he was injured," he said. Those who are released either paralyzed or have problems in memory, bones or in the ear.”

He pointed out that the Houthis, in order to ensure the silence of their prisoner after releasing him, they keep one or more of his family in captivity. He indicates that he was released in a prisoner exchange deal with 26 prisoners, "After I was released, they put me under tight surveillance, but I managed to run away to Marib with the help of some friends.”

Slapping till paralysis

Another heartbreaking story of the escapees’ families, who refused to be named for fear of his life and the life of his wife, agreed only to refer to the first letters of his name.

"I was a government employee before the Houthi attack, and when the attack happened many companies were closed, I was sitting with my friends wasting time. Once on my way home, they arrested me and blindfolded my eyes. and we came to a place which is full of photos of Abdulmalek Houthi and a person sitting on a chair with a large notebook to introduce you to talk at first without beating or aggression so that you may confess, and if refuse, they slap you, and this is a basic tool of torture that it has a staff specially for slapping untiil bleeding or paralysis .”

“They used to provide us with a living meal … food is not served daily, you get one meal every two days. Then they stopped the food and asked for money. So, those who don’t have money die out of hunger; I saw many people died of hunger. Some of there torturers would scatter poisonous mountain insects under your bed, so as not to give you a chance to sleep, i have been bitten by one of those insects," he concluded.

"Anybody who is imprisoned in Huthi prisons will never be normal again, they understand torture."

Undersecretary of the Yemeni Ministry of Information tells the experience of his brother

Dr. Abdulbaset Al-Qaedi, Undersecretary of the Yemeni Ministry of Information, spoke of his personal experience in which Houthis exploited the victims and turned them into a new source of "Business". "My brother, Salah al-Qaadi, was working for the Suhail channel in Yemen and was arrested on August 28, 2015 from his house," said Dr. Abdulbaset al-Qaedi. In the beginning they took him to the section of the pox and then he was moved to the prison of Hibra and then disappeared forcibly for 3 months. We then knew his place by accident. He was subjected to severe torture.





In September 2015 he telephoned us once. He was in a difficult situation. He was being held in solitary confinement under aggravated torture because he refused to repeat their known cry: Allah Akbar Allah Akbar ... Death to Israel, death to America. He had been in Habra prison for years. Dr. Abdul Basset continued: "In the middle of 2016, my brother started a hunger strike, and then disappeared. His place was discovered in the Political Security prison. We were deprived of his visit for long periods. We paid money in order to visit him. They leave no chance to exploit it. And the visit has strict conditions, it does not exceed a quarter of an hour, and be at a distance with cement barriers and nets separating us from prisoners, and not regular; it might be allowed once, and prevented 3 months, so that my father came from his village and stayed for three months in Sanaa hoping to see his son but they did not allow him although he is paralyzed, and suffering from several diseases Because of his shock in his son.”





He went on, "with regard to the deteriorating health of our parents because of the Salah crisis, we tried to negotiate about the amount of money needed for his release although the Houthis consider journalists big spoils. So, they may swap them for political deals or ask for very high prices. We already paid more than once through tribal mediation. Moreover, Houthi brokers are also paid special commissions on this, and we paid each time more than one million Yemeni riyals in vain, as it is a ‘business’ and sometimes fraud. He continued: I received a message full of pain from my brother telling us: «psychological horror practiced against us was harder than physical harm; they tell us you will not see light again, and your life will end inside the walls of our prisons.”

Minister of Human Rights: 2866 cases of Enforced disappearance

Form his part, Dr. Mohammed Assaker, Minister of Human Rights, said that the behavior of the Houthis towards the corpses and their exploitation in the ongoing war violates all human rights norms, which emphasize dealing with the bodies of the dead in a human way. According to the ministry statistics, there are 2866 cases of enforced disappearance in Yemen within 3 years , Since the Houthi attack in 2015, and 13,938 cases of arbitrary detention and 16,804 cases of torture in militia prisons. Yet, Dr. Arafat Hamran, head of the Monitor for Rights and Freedoms, indicated that according to the statistics of the organization, the number of torture cases reached 1393, including 7 children While the number of abductees was 17,742 during the three years since 2018, including 58 women and 268 children. Most of the cases in which abductees are released are paid for from SR 100,000 to SR 2 million.

Each kidnapped person has a price according to his or her political or social status or the number of followers on social media. As for the prisoner, they go into exchange and swap deals. He added that these disgraceful acts go beyond the drafts of international law, including the Hague Convention on Respect for the Laws and Customs of War on Land, as well as the Yemeni Penal Code, which provides for respect for corpses and the non-desecration of graves. According to Article 262 of the Penal Code, anyone who violates the inviolability of the deceased shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or a fine not exceeding two thousand riyals.

Muammar al-Iryani: We seek to uncover Houthi crimes in front of the world

And to complete the file of kidnapped journalists by the militia and to follow up any updates to this file and the measures taken to try to force Houthi to release them, and suffering of this important sector, which conveys a vivid picture of what is happening in Yemeni territory to the world .. We met with the Yemeni Minister of Information, To talk about the crimes of the Houthis against the Yemenis, especially that the media and media had a lot of these crimes, especially kidnapping, arrest, torture and murdering.



We had the following dialogue with him:

We heard a lot about Houthi violations against journalists and media, and we want to know from you about this file?

Houthi militias have committed since the coup d'état the worst crimes against media institutions and media men in Yemen, which are unprecedented violations in the world that no other country had witnessed. We are keen to bring this file to the international community to help us free abducted journalists and return them to their families. Their case was submitted to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the United Nations, the International Federation of Journalists, the Yemeni Journalists' Union and the Security Council. We were able to put pressures on Houthis. Yahya Abdulraqeeb Al-Juwahei, a teacher at Sana'a University, was set free and Houthi sentenced him in 10 minutes for betrayal, which mean for them that he did not write in their favor.

I recently visited London, met with representatives of a number of organizations, the British Parliament, newspapers and satellite channels, explained the issue of the Yemeni abductees, and the English parliament responded well to cooperating with us to pressure the militia and release the rest of the abductees.

How many journalists are still being held?

There are still 16 Yemeni journalists kidnapped by the Houthi militias in prisons. All of them are accused of writing their views openly against the Houthis. We have almost daily contact with regional and international human rights organizations. We participate in conferences that broadcast through many channels and press sites to raise the issue. We make arrangements to hold meetings with other international organizations, and raise the issue of hundreds of political detainees and activists who are in Houthi prisons.

What is your assessment of the role of international institutions in the issue of abductees?

There is a great response from them, and they promised to make efforts and help us to achieve our goals.

What are the most prominent violations against journalists and media institutions?

Houthi violations varied in their attacks on media and journalists, ranging from murder to attempted murder, abduction, torture, threats, assaults, looting of property. Nevertheless Houthis have resorted to the most extreme methods of torture and to the bombing of homes while people inside them, such as what happened in Bihan, Shabwa governorate, where they surrounded a house with a person and his children. Then they blew him up, beat the detainees with sticks on their backs until they turned blue, then release them, almost dying.

And the first body targeted by the militia when entering Sana'a was the Yemeni television institution. They seized the Yemeni news agency Saba in the capital Sana'a and the official newspapers. Houthis also blocked websites and the press institutions were destroyed. After there were more than 295 press organizations and 19 official and private TV channels in Yemen , the current number of which has become only 10 newspapers, and this has forced us to rebuild official media institutions that represent legitimacy instead of those seized by the Houthis. We established the Yemen channel and the Saba news agency for the legitimate authority. Therefore you and the Houthis have TV channels and news agencies with the same name.

Does not this create confusion and perplexity among those who follow Yemeni Crisis?

Not At all, because any person, at first moment, who read or watch the news and their context will be fully aware to whome it belong. Secondly, Houthis broadcast from a European satellite and we are broadcasting from Nilesat.

How do you evaluate the international and Arab media coverage of the Yemen crisis in general, especially the issue of detainees?

I expect from the media of different Arab countries, especially Egypt, a greater role, greater interest, to join us in defense and to raise a campaign for the release of their Yemeni colleagues and brothers. I appeal to all through you to play this role through all the media to turn it into a global public opinion issue.

The Western media is interacting but for a time or two, and not continuously, Yemen is part of the system of global conflict, as it is located on the Straits of Bab al-Mandab, Yemen must be a future part of the Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC) system, because this will give it strength against any external interference. Iran also has a huge media machine, and there is Iranian funding for several international media institutions. The Iranians penetrate many organizations and are strongly present in them, thus influencing the direction of the views of these institutions in different countries of the world. We have the right but we lack the financial means.

We face the fallacies published in some of these means by organizing visits of journalists to Yemen, so that they see the situation on the ground without falsification and to write the truth only.

In your opinion, how does Yemen emerge from its crisis?

The first and the most important step to restore our whole country is to unite, and I advise every Yemeni as brothers from one people and one blood to cooperate, and stand united by the high leadership of the state, represented by President Abed Rabbo Mansour, so that we can defeat those militias that violate the rights of the Yemeni people.
This article is part of a series of articles on Yemen by Eman Hanna.Hanna has taken a 30-day trip to monitor the suffering of the people during the war
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