Yemen: Journalist Sentenced To Four Years In Jail
On 4 September 2022, Dar Sa’ad police station released a video which was shared on social media and national media news outlets featuring Ahmad Maher. In the video, which Amnesty International analysed, Ahmad Maher appears to “confess” to criminal offences including the forgery of identity documents for members of the military and his knowledge of assassination schemes against two STC military generals. According to his lawyer, the video, which violates his right to presumption of innocence, was not requested by the prosecution and was not recorded in their presence. A few days after the video was made public, a member of the criminal prosecution interrogated Ahmad Maher in Dar Sa’ad police station in the presence of members of Dar Sa’ad security forces who all were, according to Ahmad Maher’s relative, involved in his torture. During questioning by the prosecution, Ahmad Maher retracted his “confession”, stating that he was forced to make it under duress, and asked for referral to medical treatment. The prosecution requested the director of the police station to refer Ahmad Maher for treatment, but the request was refused. On 15 September 2022, Ahmad Maher was transferred to Bir Ahmad prison where he remains to date.
On 16 November 2023, security forces of the STC physically assaulted and arbitrarily detained Ahmad Maher’s lawyer, Sami Yassin, as he was leaving work at the Supreme Judicial Council and Judicial Inspection in Khormaksar, Aden governorate. Following his arrest, security forces held him for almost four months at al-Nasr military camp, an official detention centre under the command of the Security Belt forces. According to leaked letters from Sami Yassin, while detained there he was tortured and held in solitary confinement. Throughout his detention, he has been held incommunicado and denied his right to contact and meet his family and a legal representative. On 6 March 2024, he was transferred to Bir Ahmad prison in Aden governorate, where he remains to date amid serious concerns for his health. Sami Yassin’s brother, who is also one of his lawyers, told Amnesty International that before his detention, Sami Yassin received several threats from STC-affiliated security and judicial authority figures because of his work, including for following up on the case of a detainee who died in custody in June 2023 and the case of Ahmad Maher.
All parties to the conflict in Yemen have perpetrated grave human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment and unfair trials. In November 2023, the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen reported that STC affiliated forces are detaining, subjecting to enforced disappearance, or threatening journalists and activists who publicly criticize them and are forcing them to sign or deliver “confessions”. The Panel also documented that STC-affiliated forces are systematically torturing detainees in formal and secret prisons.
In July 2018, Amnesty International published a report on enforced disappearances and detention violations committed by UAE-backed security forces, including the Security Belt forces in southern Yemen. Many arrests appeared to be based on unfounded suspicions and personal vendettas. Among those targeted were former fighters who fought in the 2015 battles to rout the Huthis from the south and who were later seen as a threat; sympathizers and members of the Hadi-aligned Islah party, Yemen’s Muslim Brotherhood branch; as well as activists and critics of the coalition.