Human rights organization: Saudi Arabia arrests and tortures Yemeni recruits on its territory

SANAA, Aug. 13 (YPA) – A human rights organisation has revealed details of Saudi Arabia’s detention of hundreds of Yemeni recruits on its territory, under inhumane conditions.

According to the so-called SAM organisation, the Saudi kingdom has arrested some 500 Yemeni recruits in a prison in Jizan, tortured them with electric equipment, and denied them access to the outside world and healthcare.

Tawfiq al-Hamidi, head of SAM, said that more than 500 of the detainees were recruits who previously fought against the National Salvation Government and in Saudi service. 28 of them were reportedly arrested merely because they asked for a day off during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

Al-Hamidi added that their conditions of detention are not subject to any form of judicial supervision, and among those arrested are Yemeni fishermen detained for unknown reasons and handed over to the Saudi army.

The organisation detailed some of the cases of former detainees, who confirmed that they had been tortured and beaten with electric wires, as well as held in cramped individual cells for months.

SAM called on the Saudi authorities to immediately release all detainees, or to hand them over to Yemeni police and judicial institutions if they are found to be involved in illegal acts.

There are no official statistics of Yemeni detainees in Saudi prisons, but many Yemeni mercenary brigades at the Saudi borders have begun to rebel about a year ago due to ill-treatment by Saudi officers. Many of these Yemenis managed to cross the border back into Yemen, in order to escape arrest and torture.

E.M