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Rasd coalition: 16 thousand cases of arrest and kidnapping by Al-Houthi in Yemen
The Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations, Rasd coalition, documented the arrest and abduction of 16,565 Yemeni civilians, including 368 children, 98 women, and 385 elderly people, from September 2104 to December 2018.
The largest share of detainees was in the capital Sanaa, which reached 2599 detainees, followed by Sanaa governorate by 2223, Taiz governorate with 1425 kidnapped persons. The coalition confirmed that Al-Houthi militias topped the List of arrests and abductions.
This came in a paper presented by a Rasd coalition at a symposium on arbitrary detention in Yemen, the paper also included the report of the Panel of Eminent Experts and the United Nations resolutions related to Yemen, during the 42nd session of the Human Rights Council currently held in Geneva, Switzerland.
The paper discussed the arbitrary arrests carried out by the Al-Houthi militias since their coup against the legitimate authority in September 2014, which affected several of politicians, human rights activists, journalists, women, and children for political, sectarian, religious, and regional reasons.
The paper presented some arbitrary arrests cases by Al-Houthi militias, the latest being the arrest of the journalist Ihab Al-Shawafi, the director of the Yemen International Bank Ahmed Thabet Al-Absi, and the Shari'a auditing officer of the Agricultural Cooperative Credit Bank (CACB), Nasr Al-Salami.
The coalition considered arbitrary detention as one of Yemen's biggest crimes, which constitute real and systematic terrorism against human rights.
Rasd coalition highlighted that the coup militias are abducting and arbitrarily arresting civilian figures from their workplaces, from the main street or their houses just because they suspect them.
they also confirmed that Al-Houthi militias have turned many government buildings, including sports clubs, colleges, and vital headquarters, into centers for arbitrary detention. The number of such places in the capital Sana'a alone reached 30.
