AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis held another round of interrogations of abducted UN and civil society workers on Wednesday, drawing fresh condemnation from human rights activists over allegations of torture and deteriorating health conditions.
Activists in Sanaa said the Houthi-controlled Specialized Criminal Prosecution questioned Ali Al-Mudhwahi, a health professional and consultant with UN children’s agency UNICEF, for a second time.
Also brought in for questioning were Asim Al-Oshari, a Yemeni civil society activist and public policy researcher, Murad Dhafer, former deputy director of the National Democratic Institute in Yemen, and Sami Al-Kalabi, an employee of the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen.
The Houthis have begun legal proceedings and interrogations against the abductees, despite concerns about their health and allegations that they were subjected to torture during their detention.
Sanaa-based activist Ahmed Nagi Al-Nabhani said the Houthis brought Al-Oshari before the Specialized Criminal Prosecution, which handles serious criminal cases, despite him suffering from cataracts that could threaten his eyesight.
He said Al-Kalabi was also questioned despite suffering from cancer.
On Monday, the Houthis held their first interrogation of Al-Mudhwahi, who has been accused of promoting vaccinations and of espionage linked to the World Health Organization.
His wife, Safiah Mohammed, said her husband was brought to interrogation under tight security “as if he were a war criminal,” with his hands cuffed and his face covered.
During the session, Al-Mudhwahi “began to talk about the torture, humiliation, and deprivation of water and sleep that he had suffered, and being forced to stand for long days, up to a week,” his wife said on Facebook.
The Houthis have launched repeated crackdowns on employees of UN agencies and international humanitarian and human rights organizations in areas under their control, particularly around Sanaa, in recent years.
Dozens of people have been abducted from their homes and workplaces or while traveling, including the four questioned this week. The arrests have drawn condemnation from the UN and local and international human rights organizations.
The Houthis have ignored repeated calls from UN officials, diplomats and human rights advocates for the abductees’ release, doubling down on accusations that some of them have collaborated with Israel and the US.
Condemnations
Local and international human rights organizations and activists have called on the Houthis to halt the interrogations and release the abductees.
Amat Al-Salam Al-Hajj, chairperson of the Abductees’ Mothers Association, an umbrella organization representing female relatives of civilian detainees, told Arab News on Wednesday that the Houthis had first forcibly disappeared the aid workers and were now subjecting them to interrogation, compounding the suffering of both them and their families.
“What the Houthi militia is doing constitutes a double violation. First, they forcibly disappeared these people, and now they are interrogating them. This violates their human rights,” Al-Hajj said.
“They are ordinary citizens who worked in humanitarian aid, distributing assistance and helping people.”
Human Rights Watch said the Houthis referred six abductees, including the four questioned on Wednesday, to the Specialized Criminal Prosecution in Sanaa on Sunday. The organization said the Houthis had forcibly disappeared abductees and denied them access to lawyers, their families and adequate medical care.
“Judicial institutions under Houthi control, including the Specialized Criminal Prosecution, should comply with Yemeni and international law and order the release of all those arbitrarily detained,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Tuesday.
Visible signs of mistreatment on the four abductees who were interrogated have also alarmed relatives of others who remain in Houthi custody, prompting renewed demands that families be allowed to visit them.
“As the son of one of those detained in the June crackdown, I have the right to ask: Is what Ali (Al-Mudhwahi) went through also what the other June detainees are experiencing? Are our fathers living in fear, hunger and sleep deprivation, and facing intimidation behind those doors?” Khaled Al-Yemeni, whose father Ahmed Ali Al-Yemeni, a former aid worker, was abducted by the Houthis in June 2024, asked on Facebook.
“We just want to know what is happening to the person who has disappeared from our lives, and to be reassured that he is being treated as a human being,” he added.
