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By: Bushra Al-Hamedi

Bullets for Iftar
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  • 2022-05-17
  •  https://acjus.org/l?e4077 

    One of its members was trying to recover the stolen goods of the store inherited by this family; as a result of that peaceful attempt, he was imprisoned. 

    This is how the victim is oppressed so that the executioner can continue to oppress the weak such as street vendors and others who try to make a living. 

    On a dark bloody day whose light turned into dusk, the dream of a young man was over in a blink of eye. He was in his store doing his job to provide for his family. He thought there is nothing wrong with that, but alas!

    Six months before 2022, an armed gang of 3, “A.A.H.M”, “A.H.S.M” and “A.Kh.H.S”, intercepted the goods of Basem Arafat Al-Muhajeri, 25 years old, who is the older brother of Mohammed Arafat, 18 years old. The goods was coming from Aden to Al-Hawban east of Taiz and this gang retained the goods unduly and for no reason. 

    Mohammad and Basem had no support to turn to in order to get their goods back; consequently, Basem decided to resort to one of the Houthi (Ansar Allah) leaders in the area and he thought this leader might do him justice. He went with that leader who was accompanied by his escorts to this gang, and a clash broke out between the two sides resulting in killing one of the gangsters and Basem Arafat was arrested because of that. 
     
    One of the gangsters had obtained the position and rank of an officer in the security department of Mawiyah district due to his closeness to the Houthi group (Ansar Allah) so that he can support the gang. He simply arrested Basem and put him in prison for solicitation of murder

    The gang was not satisfied with the arrest of Basem, as both "A.A.H.M" and "A.H.K.M" were visiting Mohammed in the family's shop located in the Suwayda market in Mawiyah area, to threaten him and the workers in the shop with revenge and physical liquidation due to the death of their fellow gangster. 

    At 6:30 pm, Monday, April 24, 2022, just a few moments before the time for breakfast on that Ramadan day, the mother looked out of the window of her house facing the store to check that her son, Mohammed Arafat, was coming home to break his fast. Mohammed was walking home, thinking only of the food he thought he was going to have. He didn’t know that he would never get the chance to break his fast or that he wouldn’t see his mother or the store anymore. “A.H.S.M” was on a motorbike when he shot Mohammad in the back before the eyes of his shocked mother. 

    “A.H.S.M” didn’t stop there. He got off the motorbike and moved towards Mohammed, who was lying on the ground covered in blood, and shot him before he got on his motorbike to leave the crime scene. 

    Mohammed had done nothing. He was a young man who was trying to provide for his family by working in the family store inherited from the father whereas his older brother was framed and put in prison for solicitation of murder only because of his peaceful endeavor to restore his right and the right of his brothers to the looted money, without committing any guilt.

    The mother and her children were left without a breadwinner and no one has supported or helped them to get justice for Mohammed and Basem. The only thing this grieving mother can do now is praying, for the divine justice might be closer.


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