Yemen.. A journalist released from Houthi prisons vows to prosecute the militia leadership involved in torturing journalists

Journalist Abdul Khaleq Omran, who was released from the prisons of the terrorist Houthi militias, vowed to prosecute all Houthi leaders involved in the crimes of torturing journalists.

"We will not allow perpetrators of torture crimes against journalists to continue and escape punishment, as long as there is a voice of truth and a living conscience struggling for justice in this world," Imran said in a post he published on the "X" platform on Saturday, coinciding with the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.

Journalist "Amran" attached to his blog a photo showing the leaders of the Houthi militia involved in the crimes of torture against journalists, in the Central Security Camp prison in Sana'a, whom he described as "torture thugs", brutal, barbaric and morally decadent.

"Amran" identified those appearing in the picture, most notably the head of the prison and the Houthi delegation in the negotiations for prisoners and abductees, Abdul Qader Al-Murtada, and his deputy Murad Abu Hussein, and members of the delegation team and the prison administration, Ahmed Abu Hamra and Essam Sharaf Al-Din, in addition to Al-Murtada's brothers Abu Shahab and Majd Al-Din, along with others.

He stressed that "he and all the free people of the world will continue to demand justice and hold accountable the criminals revealed by the photo."

This photo shows the faces of the criminals who tortured journalists in the Houthi militia prison in the Central Security Camp in Sana'a, headed by the head of the prison and the Houthi delegation in the negotiations of prisoners and abductees, Abdul Qader Al-Murtada and his deputy Murad Abu Hussein, and members of the delegation team and the prison administration, Ahmed Abu Hamra and Essam Sharaf Al-Din,… pic.twitter.com/dzaOlw2AWm

- Abdul Khaleq Omran (@emranalkhaleq) November 2, 2024

Journalist Omran was released with his fellow journalists who had previously been sentenced to death by the militia, Tawfiq Al-Mansouri, Harith Hamid and Akram Al-Walidi, on April 16, 2023, in a prisoner exchange with the legitimate government, under UN auspices, after about seven and a half years of their kidnapping. However, it recently returned to try them in absentia again.

On Saturday, 45 organizations within the Justice Charter Coalition said that journalism in Yemen is going through the worst phase in its history. For a whole decade, violations against journalists have not stopped, with perpetrators and those involved escaping punishment. This has contributed to Yemen being classified as the third most dangerous country in the world for journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders in its 2021 report, which indicated that Yemen ranks 154th in press freedom out of 180 countries for the year 2024.

She pointed out that she and the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate had documented, over the course of a decade, more than 3,000 violations against journalists, media institutions and media activists in Yemen.

The organizations said: “At a time when we demand justice, that those involved not escape punishment, and that those responsible for all crimes against journalists and media activists be held accountable, instead of providing the means of protection that help them work for the truth, we are witnessing unprecedented brutality, as if the ongoing hell against journalists has just begun.”

In this context, she referred to the recent kidnapping of journalist Mohammed Al-Mayahy by the Houthi militia, sentencing journalist Taha Al-Moammar to death, confiscating his property, and retrying four journalists who had previously been released in a UN-sponsored exchange deal, stressing that "these arbitrary practices reveal the brutal and repressive approach followed by the Houthi group against journalists, which has led to the desertification of their areas from independent and partisan journalism."