Five Yemeni journalists were kidnapped by the Houthi group that controls Sana’a for more than five years.
Here is the story behind their abduction and features of the mental and physical torture they experienced over the past five years and half. Two of the five journalists, Haitham Al-Shehab, Essam Balghaith, recounted their story in exclusive symposium with SEE.
Along with the two journalists, Yemeni activist Dr. Wesam Basindowah and other important figures led the symposium, discussing the cruel incident.
The Abduction
"On the dawn of Tuesday, June 9, 2015, we were kidnapped by the Houthi group which controls Sana’a as we just were doing our journalistic work," they said. "We were nine journalists, covering the events and the humanitarian situation that the capital and other governorates were going through."
The journalists stated that they had to move from one place to another, as the internet and electricity were not available at that time except in some places, including hotels. Finally, they settled at Bahr al-Ahlam Hotel on Siteen Street in the capital, Sanaa, from which the kidnapping journey began.
The nine journalists were: Haitham Al-Shehab, Hisham Al-Yousifi, Hasan Anab, Essam Balghaith, Akram Al-Walidy, Hisham Tarmoom, Abdul-Khaleq Emran, Harith Hamid, and Tawfiq Al-Mansoori.
While they were at the hotel, at 2:00 am, a group of gunmen carrying medium and light weapons and M72 Law with the Houthi slogan on them, stormed the apartment where they were staying, according to the journalists' statements.
Next, many armed men took them by force in military vehicles and civilian cars to Al-Hasaba police station.
The Police Stations
Once they arrived at the police station, four journalists (Abdul-Khaleq Omran, Tawfiq Al-Mansoori, Harith Hamid, Hisham Tarmoom) were transferred to the Al-Shaheed Al- Ahmar police department in the capital, Sana'a.
Moreover, the other five journalists who remained in Al-Hasaba police station -Essam Balghaith, Haitham Al-Shehab, Hisham Al-Yousifi, Hasan Anab and Akram Al-Walidy- were transferred to the Criminal Investigation Prison on Wednesday evening June 10, 2015.
The two journalists mentioned that the cells in which they were placed in Al-Hasaba police station were cramped, full of dirt and smelly. In addition, they could not find a place to sit or sleep, and they were not allowed to communicate with their families to tell them their place or assure them that they were fine.
"We also were being forcibly starved. They didn’t bring us food and the only food we had was the leftovers of the food brought to other prisoners,"Haitham and Essam revealed.
"On the evening of Friday 12/6/2015, the four journalists placed in the Al-Shaheed Al-Ahmar police station were joined with the five journalists in the Criminal Investigation prison."
The Criminal Investigation Prison
Upon arriving in the Criminal Investigation Prison, the group distributed the journalists to cells and began investigations while they were handcuffed and blindfolded. The most asked question was related to how they find the press sources.
They were inhumanly placed in dark and dirty cells, and they were not given any blankets to protect them from the cold weather of Sanaa prisons. In addition, they were subjected to severe torture, as they were beaten mostly on the neck and abdomen.
"They sat us on electric chairs and connected the electrical wires in our bodies and sprayed us with water in preparation for electrocuting us," the journalists mentioned. "We were also hung from our hands to iron poles and nets. They also kept beating us from time to time."
Furthermore, they threatened to place them in an armory in order to be hit by airstrike of Coalition as they had done previously to their fellows Abdullah Qabel and Yousif Al Aizari.
During the criminal investigation, they were allowed to use the bathroom only twice a day and night, sometimes once. Other times, they we were denied access to the bathroom for 24 hours.
Consequently, prisoners were in a state of mental breakdown. All these scenes led to the deterioration of their condition, which was already bad because of the ill- treatment they faced due to the kidnapping.
At the dawn of July 13, 2015, corresponding to Ramadan 25, they called the nine journalists' names and gathered them which was the first time they all met since the kidnapping.
"It was a short meeting with no chance to talk," they asserted. "They took us out, handcuffed us, blindfolded us tightly and put us in one car but we felt that many cars were accompanying us."
Al-Thawra Pretrial Prison
Following the criminal investigation prison, they arrived at unknown and empty place where they could hear screaming and shouting loudly. The prisoners lived in anxiety, as they shuddered at the threats of transferring them to weapons warehouses.
In the Al-Thawra pretrial prison, they were subjected to many forms of physical and psychological torture. The prison director named, Abu Ahmed, took them out of the cell and beat them with sticks and electric wires until their skins burned.
The torture was repeated in January, when the prison director, Abu Khalil, entered the prison instead of Abu Ahmed. Abu Khalil summoned the nine journalists only, under the pretext of the loudness of the sound in the cell, and took us out to the hall. He along with his crew beat them so hard. On one occasion, Abu Khalil informed them that the Houthis do not want media in Yemen.
In the same prison, they were summoned for interrogations twice. Most of the questions focused on relatives, their places of work, their whereabouts and their residence as a kind of threat.
Moreover, the Houthis were deliberately humiliating and insulting the prisoners in front of their families during the visits. They were intentionally frightening the families and disturbing them with the presence of the armed men everywhere. The visiting time was no more than 3-4 minutes.
"We spent seven months in prisons, during which we were not exposed to the sun, as some prisoners were taken out to expose them to the sun, except for journalists."
They justified this by saying that we (the most dangerous people against the Ansar Allah Al-Houthi group), as the supervisors used to tell us (You are the most dangerous people, the pen is more dangerous than the sword).
Habra Pretrial Prison
On the evening of March 16, 2016, they summoned the nine journalists with a group of prisoners and ordered them to fingerprint and sign on a set of papers. Then, they took them after to Habra Pretrial Prison.
It was customary for the prisoners to be searched while leaving or arriving in any prison, and they were again separated for days in different cells.
Then, they were collected in cell No. (5) where they brought another colleague, Salah al-Qa’adi, to become the tenth journalists in the cell.
In April 2016, in Habra pretrial prison, a group of people working at prison administration came by order of one of the prison supervisors called, Salim Al-Qadi. The group of people blindfolded and handcuffed the prisoners and then beat them with sticks on their heads, backs and many areas on their bodies, in addition to the insulting and slanderous words they used against them.
Because of the ill-treatment they had been receiving since almost a year of abduction, the increase in cases of systematic assault on them, deprivation and deliberate medical neglect, as well as the deterioration in the health condition, they announced a hunger strike on May 9, 2016.
Political Security Prison
After announcing a hunger strike, they were transferred as a collective punishment to the Political Security prison, on May 24, 2016, where psychological and physical torture was practiced.
They were taken to the Political Security prison in an underground cell, which was so cramped that they almost suffocated because of the lack of oxygen.
Investigations began the journalists were fainting in the interrogation rooms as a result of the pressure and psychological torture they were subjected to.
The hunger strike lasted for nearly 40 days, during which they were close to death. After they suspended the strike due to fear of death, the Houthi group refused to provide them with food as a punishment.
"We stayed in a period of enforced disappearance for seven months, during which we were not exposed to the sun at all which resulted in many diseases such as rheumatism, arthritis, skin allergies and fungi in the body."
Judicial Proceedings
In December 2019, after four and a half years of detention, the first session was in the Specialized Criminal Court, in which they were surprised by the submission of an indictment by the prosecution and confession files that the prosecution said they confessed of while the fact is they didn’t answer any of the questions during interrogation.
In all court sessions, they were placed in a cage, tied to each other under strict procedures in a humiliating and tiring manner. Moreover, the judge used to carry a weapon during the court sessions and accused them of committing some charges that were not included in the indictment submitted by the prosecution.
The judge mocked them, describing them as (enemies of God). He also asked them to go to the fronts in order to fight with the army and the popular committees of the Houthi group.
The Houthi militia gave their unjust sentence and they convicted them with false and ridiculous accusations which stated that they "disseminate news and information materials which are against the defence force belonging to that militia".
In the this manner, the Houthi court ruled that the time the spent in detention was enough and released six of us (Hasan Anab, Salah Al-Qa’adi, Essam Balgaith, Hisham Tarmoom, Hisham Al Yousefi, and Haitham Al Shihab).
"Our release was not unconditional since they decided to keep us under surveillance for three years and not to practice journalism as well as confiscating our possessions including phones, laptops, cameras and money," the journalists said.
"As for the remaining four journalists (Hareth Hameed, Abdulkhaleq Emran, Akram Al-Walidi, and Tawfik Al-Mansouri), were sentenced to death.
The Release
Despite the court ruling, the Houthis did not implement it to release them, and only al-Qa’adi came out on April, 2020 whereas the other nine journalists were transferred to the Central Security Camp building on October, 2020.
The five journalists who were released were Balghith, Annab, Al-Shehab, Al-Yousifi, and Tarmoom. They were only released in a prisoner swap deal sponsored by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross between the Houthis and the legitimate government on October 15, 2020.
The five journalists were released from prisons suffering from poor health and psychological conditions. Balghaith suffered from lacerations in the cruciate ligament of the knee, erosion of the crescent cartilage of the knee, severe pain in the chest and stomach, bronchitis and skin allergies.
Additionally, Al-Yousifi suffered from severe osteoporosis, erosion of the cartilage in the knees, weakness in the nerves and muscles, in addition to diseases of the stomach, colon and chest. Also, Anab suffered from poor eyesight and skin allergies.
The two journalists elaborated that these diseases came as a result of deliberate medical neglect during the five and a half years of kidnapping in the prisons of the Houthi group.
Finally, they urged those who read this article to make some efforts in order to help release the rest of the kidnapped journalists who are sentenced to death and to save them from the danger of death and the bad humanitarian situation they suffer in Houthi prisons.
"We have already communicated with the families of the our colleagues who have been detained by the Houthi group," they said, adding that they informed them about the strict instructions.
"They were prevented from visiting their relatives since October 2020, and that the detainees’ health condition has deteriorated, especially since their families were prevented from bringing everything to them, including the medicines they need."
"They also told us that the Houthis stipulate that in order to release the journalists, they should be exchanged with Houthi fighters who were captured by the legitimate government on the battle fronts," they asserted.
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