Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) stressed that the killing of the Yemeni youth, Abdul Malik Al-Sanabani, after his arrest, sheds light on the crimes of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council in the provinces it controls, and its increasing violations against citizens.
Abdul Malik Al-Sanabani, 30, an American citizen, came to Yemen a few days ago. On Wednesday, September 08, 2021, while passing through Tor Al-Baha checkpoint in Lahj governorate, he was searched, tortured, and killed after being stopped by an armed brigade of the ninth thunderbolt checkpoint on the accusation of belonging to the Houthi group.
Following the incident, the Transitional Council issued a number of statements justifying the case; however, it all confirmed that this was a premeditated murder.
The council’s Media Advisor, Jalal Souissi, had stated that they “received a report about the suspicious actions of Abdul Malik, as he was taking pictures of military sites, which led to his arrest at one of the checkpoints.”
Mohamed Al-Nashry, Bridget at Tor Al-Baha checkpoint said that they arrested a person suspected of being a Houthi member after receiving reports about his suspicious movements, and he was killed while trying to escape and refusing to be searched.
Another statement said that they “took the young man to the BP Hospital in Al-Buraiqah in the temporary capital, Aden, after he had a traffic accident as he fell out of the car he was traveling in.”
AOHR UK explained that the impunity enjoyed by the military forces of the Transitional Council and the lack of accountability, amid the disruption of judicial institutions, in addition to the regional support provided by the UAE to these forces, encouraged them to commit brutal violations against civilians, as it has illegally and arbitrarily arrested, tortured and forcibly disappeared many citizens, in addition to murdering and assassinating opponents of the Emirati regime.
AOHR UK added that the area controlled by the Transitional Council has turned into a huge prison in which citizens suffer from constant threats to life and property, adding that prisons are overcrowded with detainees, and none of them are released except after forcing their families into paying large sums of money.
AOHR UK called on the international community and relevant UN bodies to take urgent measures to stop the crimes of the Transitional Council forces and its regional supporters, and to hold accountable those involved in the crimes of assassination, torture and arbitrary arrest, and to save Yemeni civilians, who are suffering the worst humanitarian catastrophe in modern history, from the oppression of those forces.