London: The men from National Security Bureau were careful to blindfold Hisham Al Omeisy before they beat him with metal chains in the dungeon basement.
Every few days they would drag him from his prison cell to hang by his handcuffed wrists from the ceiling.
“I didn’t see the faces of the men who were torturing me, but I recognised their voices. I will never forget their voices,” the Yemeni political activist told The Sunday Telegraph.
Al Omeisy spent months in the captivity of Iranian-backed Al Houthis.
Political activists like Al Omeisy have been targeted for detention and torture along with the small Baha’i religious minority, who are loathed by Al Houthis’ Iranian allies.
According to human rights groups, Al Houthi agents run extortion rackets where they arrest people and demand money from their families for their release. Amid widespread famine in Yemen, many of the families cannot afford to buy food, let alone pay large ransoms.
When Al Omeisy, 39, stepped up his focus on Al Houthis’ corruption and brutality, they turned on him. On August 14 last year, he received a call saying his brother had been in a car accident. When Al Omeisy arrived on the scene in Sana’a, a convoy of armed Al Houthis were waiting to arrest him.
His captors held him for five months in an underground cell and accused him of being a spy for the US and a secret supporter of the Saudi-led coalition. He was brought out from the tiny cell only for beatings and interrogations. “It felt like they were burying us alive,” he said. “You would scream and scream and no one would hear. You start talking to yourself and going crazy.”
Al Omeisy was released in January amid widespread international pressure. Al Houthis tried to place him under house arrest but he escaped the capital by car, hiding under a rug at the feet of his wife and two young sons.
The family spent a harrowing day passing through Al Houthi checkpoints to get from Sana’a to Aden, Yemen’s second city, and then fleeing to Cairo. Many others have not been as lucky. Akram Ayyash, a Baha’i community leader, was in the cell next to Al Omeisy and is believed to still be in Al Houthi captivity. Al Houthis have arrested dozens of Baha’i since 2016 and this month brought espionage charges against 24 Baha’i, including eight women and a teenage girl. The group could face execution if convicted.
The Baha’i faith is a small monotheistic religion which began in Iran in the 1800s. Iran’s theocratic government has persecuted the Baha’i intensely and advocates believe that Al Houthis’ own crackdown is being carried out at the urging of Iran.
“We know for sure that the Iranian government is instigating the persecution in Al Houthi-controlled areas,” said Padideh Sabeti, a spokesman for the UK Baha’i Community.
Human Rights Watch this week released a report detailing a widespread pattern of Al Houthi forces taking hostages and using their prisoners to “extort money from relatives or to exchange them for people held by opposing forces”.
Al Omeisy is from a well-connected family and Al Houthis tried to get $1 million (Dh3.67 million) for his release. But the militia have been prepared to squeeze more modest sums out of poorer families. One doctor was held and tortured for 15 months before his family was able to pay around Dh43,000.
Sana’a’s economy has collapsed after more than three years of fighting and few families have any savings to pay ransoms.
“The people being extorted are often on the brink of starvation if not starving already,” said Kristine Beckerle, Yemen researcher for Human Rights Watch.
The Sunday Telegraph
