{"id":9452,"date":"2026-01-21T23:13:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=9452"},"modified":"2026-01-21T23:13:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:13:47","slug":"stripped-naked-yemeni-detainee-recounts-torture-in-uae-run-prison-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=9452","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Stripped naked\u2019: Yemeni detainee recounts torture in UAE-run prison | Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>It\u2019s been more than six years since Ali Hassan Ali Bakhtiyan was released from a secret prison in eastern Yemen\u2019s Hadramout Governorate, but he cannot forget the horrors he underwent during his more than two years in detention.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a very bitter and extremely painful experience,\u201d the 39-year-old man said, adding he was lodged inside the secret prison run by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and local Yemeni troops called the Hadrami Elite Forces (HEF) inside Hadramout\u2019s Presidential Palace.<\/p>\n<section class=\"more-on\">\n<h2 class=\"more-on__heading\">Recommended Stories<!-- --> <\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">list of 4 items<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cThey stripped me naked and used cold water. I was interrogated first by members of the Hadrami Elite Forces, then they handed me to the Emiratis officers,\u201d Ali told Al Jazeera over the phone, saying he was detained twice \u2013 first in 2016 and then again in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>The prison, Ali says, was not even suitable for animals. \u201cClosed, dark rooms, hands tied and blindfolded. Twenty days went by without a chance to clean your body. They used physical and body torture, solitary confinement several times, beating many times,\u201d Ali recalls.<\/p>\n<p>The 30-year-old says he was first detained following a bomb blast in Hadramout. \u201cI was falsely accused of being a member of the Islah Party,\u201d he said, denying he was a member of the party, which is the main opposition party in Yemen. The country\u2019s Muslim Brotherhood also falls under its umbrella.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do not have any affiliation with any political party. Even the interrogator later told me, \u2018I have nothing against you, but the Emiratis wanted you,&#8217;\u201d Ali said.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, he was transferred to the central prison in Hadramout and appeared before a judge, following which, he was released without charge.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"uae-secret-prisons\">UAE secret prisons<\/h2>\n<p>Ali\u2019s case and many other prisoners have come under the spotlight again after Hadramout Governor Salem al-Khanbashi on Monday announced the discovery of \u201csecret prisons at sites where UAE forces were stationed\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The governor \u201cexpressed his regret at what was found inside the UAE bases and camps \u2013 especially in the vicinity of Rayyan International Airport \u2013 of equipment and contents unrelated to regular armies, including explosives, detonators and dangerous components usually used by terrorist groups, in addition to the discovery of secret prisons at those forces\u2019 deployment sites,\u201d\u00a0according to the state-run Yemeni News Agency (SABA).<\/p>\n<p>The UAE forces withdrew from Yemen on January 3 after Yemen\u2019s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) chairman Rashad al-Alimi annulled a joint defence agreement with Abu Dhabi and asked UAE forces to leave within 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>This came after the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces took control of Hadramout and al-Mahrah provinces in early December. The STC control of Hadramout, which borders Saudi Arabia, was seen as a national security threat by Riyadh.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces bombed Mukalla, the capital of Hadramout, targeting what Riyadh said was a UAE-linked weapons shipment destined for the STC. Soon, government forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, regained the two provinces in early January, triggering the collapse of the STC. The UAE denied supplying weapons to the southern separatists.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Governor of Hadramout al-Jilani told Al Jazeera that \u201cfour illegal detention sites\u201d affiliated with UAE forces in the governorate had been \u201cidentified\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuch practices are a blatant violation of the Yemeni constitution, applicable laws, and all international and humanitarian charters and agreements that criminalise detention outside the judicial framework,\u201d he said, adding that local authorities in the governorate will carry out comprehensive and transparent investigations and hear the testimonies of victims and witnesses to gather evidence to hold those responsible accountable.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, the UAE\u2019s Ministry of Defence issued a statement categorically denying the accusations, describing them as \u201cfalse and misleading allegations and claims that are not based on any evidence or fact\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese allegations are attempts to mislead the public opinion and to defame the armed forces of the United Arab Emirates, the statement read.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"shocking-scenes\">Shocking scenes<\/h2>\n<p>The government\u2019s National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations of Human Rights (NCIAVHR) has been tasked with investigating the cases of torture in prisons. Officials from the body have visited prisons and are speaking with victims.<\/p>\n<p>\u201dThe secret detention centres were in state institutions and service facilities, such as al-Rayyan Airport [in Mukalla], the Republican Palace, al-Dhabba Port, and the central prison known as \u2018Al-Manoura Prison\u2019,\u201d committee member Ishraq Al-Maqtari told Al Jazeera, adding that Emirati forces had converted them into private, secret detention centres after adding some inhumane modifications.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost of the modifications included building very small, extremely narrow rooms unfit for human detention, some far from public life in the desert, and some of them were constructed underground,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Maqtari further described that detention centres were built with \u201cpunitive specifications, such that a detainee could not stand in them even for short periods, let alone attempt to sit or sleep\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome rooms were also used as presses for torture, where a person is held for very long periods, even though they are unfit to remain in for a few hours,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"justice-and-accountability\">Justice and accountability<\/h2>\n<p>Since the UAE forces withdrew, protests have been regularly held demanding disclosure of the fate of hundreds of abducted and forcibly disappeared people in UAE prisons, particularly in the interim capital, Aden.<\/p>\n<p>The NCIAVHR has said it will head to other governorates where secret detention facilities have been reported, including in the Socotra Archipelago governorate, Aden, Lahj, Taiz and Al Hodeidah.<\/p>\n<p>NCIAVHR member al-Maqtari, who has been meeting victims and their families, says \u201cthey demanded the need to hold accountable the bodies and individuals who detained and tortured them, along with restoring their dignity and compensating them for the horrific, inhumane torture and humiliations they were subjected to.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been more than six years since Ali Hassan Ali Bakhtiyan was released from a secret prison in eastern Yemen\u2019s Hadramout Governorate, but he cannot forget the horrors he underwent during his more than two years in detention. \u201cIt was a very bitter and extremely painful experience,\u201d the 39-year-old man said, adding he was lodged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}