Houthis crimes in Yemen, Abd al-Fattah al-Maliki brutally killed while visiting his family for Ramadan
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Alaina
- . April 22, 2021
- . Update: April 22, 2021 7:14 pm
The Yemeni expatriate, Abd al-Fattah al-Maliki, would not have imagined that his journey to spend Ramadan with his family in Yemen, in one of the areas of Taiz governorate, would end his life. He died under the torture of the Iran-backed Houthi militia.
The young man decided to return from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where he lives with his family for a vacation during the holy month for Muslims of Ramadan, but the Houthis kidnapped him few hours after he reached the house of his son. Images published on social media show the corpse of Abd Al Fattah al Maliki without life. Media reports affirm he was tortured for hours by the terrorist group.
According to Al-Arabiya, the lifeless body of the young man, who was happy to meet his family, was returned to his relatives Tuesday, bearing traces of horrific torture and severe burns, in a scene that shocked many Yemenis, today calling for the condemnation from human rights organizations of this heartless act and demanding the return of the truth to the people of Yemen, while Abdel Fattah’s photos continue to spread on social media.
The Erada organization, against torture and forced disappearance, has issued a statement in which it denounced this brutal crime, calling on the international community to assume its responsibility for Houthi to be prosecuted for this and all the heinous crimes they are responsible for.
According to Al-Arabiya, kidnappings and enforced disappearances are widespread in areas controlled by the Houthis. Here hundreds of families are waiting to learn the fate of their children who have disappeared in the cellars of the prisons of the Iranian-backed militia.
Many have been tortured and it is feared that some of those arrested may have died in detention. The families of the detainees live an endless nightmare. To their requests to know where their relatives are detained or if they are still alive, the answer is silence or intimidation.
Many Yemenis remain in Houthi prisons without charge, sometimes for years. Mothers, wives, and sisters of the missing have held regular protests along the route between government and prosecutor offices, security services headquarters, prisons, Saudi-led coalition bases, and various other places to file related complaints. Unfortunately, as in the case of Al-Maliki, their loved ones will never return home alive.
“If only they would confirm that my brother is still alive if only, they would show us… that’s all we want. But we can’t find anyone to confirm us. My mother is like she dies a hundred times a day. They don’t know what we’re feeling,” says the sister of a man who disappeared in the same Taiz Governorate last month.
Human rights defenders call on Houthis partners and those who protested for their declassification as a terrorist group, to take a clear stand on allegations of torture, investigating, and refusing to use the information most likely extracted through ill-treatment and torture.
