Michigan - The American Center for Justice (ACJ) said that the fate of citizen "Abdullah Ali Al-Hayi", who has been forcibly disappeared for more than three years in Aden, is still unknown. The center expressed its concern about the life of the kidnapped "Abdullah" in light of the testimonies that reached the center, which stated that the last time he was seen, he was completely unconscious, taking into account the possibility of his death under torture. The ACJ thus called for his fate to be revealed and the immediate release of his relatives who were arrested with him during that time.

The ACJ indicates that the details of the kidnapping incident against Al-Hayi and seven of his relatives date back to mid-October 2020, when gunmen in cars belonging to the Basateen Police Department in the Dar Saad District of Aden Governorate raided the homes of a number of displaced civilians from the Dhamar Governorate in the city of Inmaa, looted its contents and took its residents, including children and women, to the department building, where these kidnapped were subjected to torture and insults, without legal justification. After that, Abdullah Ali Al-Hayi was transferred to an unknown location.

The gunmen kidnapped: “Abdullah Ali Al-Hayi, Jabr Ali Al-Hayi (14 years), Sinan Ali Al-Hayi, Ali Abdul-Malik Al-Hayi (14 years), Ali Abdul Karim Al-Hayi (15 years), Jabr Nasser Sarib, Ghalib Ali Al-Dhabyani, and Al-Jashmi Ahmed Hussein Al-Jashmi.” During the raid and detention in the police station, they were subjected to beatings, insults, insults and blackmail, while the women who were arrested at the moment of the raid were attacked and insulted, and the men were blackmailed by insulting women and children, and threatening to further insult them, until they were forced to submit an offer to confess to the accusations against them and sign those accusations. 

According to the Center’s follow-up at the time, the eight citizens continued to be detained and their relatives were prevented from visiting them for nearly six months until the Basateen Police Director was replaced with a new director, so they were transferred to Bir Ahmed prison, where they remain, except for “Abdullah Ali Al-Hayi,” whose fate is still unknown. According to the testimony of his colleagues currently detained in Bir Ahmed prison, the former director of the police department tortured him for a long time until he fainted before transporting him in a car to an unknown destination.

It has been proven to (ACJ) that the process of kidnapping and detaining these people was carried out arbitrarily, and without disclosing the charges against them, or referring them to the competent judicial authorities, noting that they do not have any connections or relationships to any armed groups or entities that violate law.

The American Center for Justice affirms that the violations that occurred with the detainees constitute a blatant violation of the Constitution and national laws and an attack on the freedom and dignity of citizens, especially arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, and torture, which are prohibited in human rights conventions and charters, and international humanitarian law.

(ACJ) calls on the security authorities in Aden to reveal the fate of the kidnapped “Abdullah Al-Hayi” and provide full clarifications about him urgently. It also renews its call for the necessity of releasing all other detainees, holding all those responsible for the violations to which detainees have been subjected to account, restoring dignity to them and their families, and stopping all forms of detention outside the framework of the law and threatening the security and safety of citizens.