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National Security head orders committee to investigate forcibly detained revolutionaries
A forcible detention is when the taking of a person is unlawful.
Ali Al-Ahmedi, head of National Security, denied that the department is holding any revolutionary detainees. He said he wishes whoever claims National Security has underground prisons inform him so that he can immediately start investigating these claims.
In a meeting with Human Rights Minister Horia Mashhour and various youth leaders, Al-Ahmedi gave orders for the urgent formation of a committee—made up of members from the National Security and youth groups—to follow the cases of all forced detainees from the 2011 uprising based on lists given by the Ministry of Human Rights and the General Revolutionary Detainees Council. Al-Ahmedi assigned the undersecretary of the department to look at the names in the lists and inform him of their situations.
Abdulkareem Thua’ail, head of the General Revolutionary Detainees Council, told the Yemen Times that several violations were committed against the revolutionaries such as unjust detention and torture. Thua’ail said these violations took place inside National Security prisons because of the detainees’ affiliations with the 2011 uprising or because of their support for the uprising’s aims.
He demanded opening investigations regarding the torture and illegal detention of young revolutionaries exposed to National Security prisons during the past two years and to prosecute anyone involved with the detentions.
Ali Al-Awaredi, a media activist in Sana’a’s Change Square, said the detainees were arrested by pro-Saleh people and were sent to prisons.
He asserted the importance of establishing a committee made up of young revolutionaries, the National Security and human rights activists to find out where the detainees are and to release them.
In a human rights symposium in August, Mashhour pointed out that the ministry issued a list composed of 196 detainees of the revolutionary people. They were all released except for 28, who remain missing.
