On October 15th, a prisoner exchange deal was set to take place between the Houthi rebels and the government of Yemen, an exchange in which over a thousand people were supposed to be released, among them the imprisoned Yemeni journalists Abdul-Khaleq Amran, Akram al-Walidi, Hareth Humaid, and Tawfiq al-Mansouri. Over the years, there has been more and more concern regarding the hostility journalists have been faced with and authorities’ attempts to silence them.

The four previously mentioned journalists, all working for different local news outlets, were arbitrarily detained in 2015 by Houthi officials for their reports. The reports in question detailed abuses at the hands of the Houthis as the group took over Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, as well as many other territories in Western Yemen in September 2014. It was at this time that the Houthis were at the height of a violent campaign aiming to silence journalists. In 2016, Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi public said that “media workers are more dangerous to our country than the traitors and mercenaries of security forces.”

Earlier this year, in April, Sanaa’s Specialized Criminal Court which is dominated by the Houthis sentenced al-Walidi, Amran, Humaid, and al-Mansouri to death. The sentence proceded an extremely unfair trial heavily influenced by politics, with some of the charges including treason and spying for other states, claims coming exclusively from the journalists’ media work. However, the court failed to establish a set date in which the sentence is to be carried out.

As if the threat of execution were not enough, concerns about the conditions in which the four men are being held have also been raised by several human rights groups. Three other detainees were detained, held, and tried alongside the four, however these three were released in the prisoner exchange. According to their recount to Human Rights Watch, they were held in a cold, unsanitary cell of about six meters squared, shared with six other men.

Five prisoners who were held in these same conditions have described the torture as “systematic”, where they were consistently being moved from one cell to another, frequently kept in solitary confinement, and denied access to food, water, and medication. These men believe that they came down with COVID-19 in May of this year after experiencing several common symptoms, however, the prison doctor denied the infection and only advised the captors to add more sources of Vitamin C to their food.

Hassan Annab, one of the journalists arrested in a hotel raid in 2015, said that he was tortured after Houthi authorities found a pen inside the prison cell during a search. The director of the prison, Yahiya Sarea, alongside some of the guards, actually took turns beating and torturing Annab.

“He was hitting my back from head to toe with sticks from 9:30 o.m. to 3 a.m. He demanded to know how I got the pen.”

Annab, alongside Hisham Tarmoum, Isam Balghaith, Hartham al-Shehab, and Hishan Al-Yousofi, was released in the prisoner exchange deal of October 15th, leaving al-Walidi, Amran, Humaid, and al-Mansouri behind. Those released have repeatedly said that they fear the remaining four may be executed soon, seeing as they were blatantly excluded from the exchange.

Multiple human rights and media freedom groups around the world, and more intensely in Yemen, have appealed numerous times to reverse the death sentences and release the journalists, however, Houthi authorities have refused to do so. Officials have also declined to give updates regarding their cases and if a date for execution has been set or not.

The jailed men and their families on the outside continue to suffer the effects of the arrests made five years ago. Days following October 15th, the date of the prisoner exchange deal, family members of those incarcerated described the frustration and pain they felt as they weren’t able to come to their loved ones’ aid. Their main concern is that of their health, which is likely deteriorating rapidly without proper access to medical care while imprisoned.

The fathers of two of the men, Tawfiq al-Mansouri and Hareth Humaid, were denied access by the Houthis to visit their sons in prison and sadly passed away without bidding farewell to them. Since their passing, members of their families have been consistently pleading with the Houthis to release them or merely comply with the right they have to visit.

Tawfiq al-Mansouri has arguably suffered the worst out of all the journalists detained. Since his detention, al-Mansouri has suffered through many chronic illnesses, among these being diabetes, kidney failure, cardiovascular complications, asthma, and prostate inflammation, aside from his likely infection of COVID-19 in May of this year. He has been denied the necessary treatment for his heart problems, consistently putting his life at risk.

The Houthis are not the only group mistreating and arbitrarily detaining journalists in Yemen. In the past two years, the Committee to Protect Journalists disclosed that media workers in Yemen are receiving threats and attacks from all warring sides and face abusive treatment in any given area, even areas controlled by Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

“The Houthi de facto authorities’ denial to urgent medical treatment for seriously ill journalist Tawfiq al-Mansouri is an act of cruelty that violates the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment.”

Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director fro the Middle East and North Africa

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