Third batch of prisoners released from UAE-run prisons in Yemen

Due to international pressures, the UAE authorities released on Tuesday the third batch of prisoners from its secret jails in Yemen.

Earlier last month, the Associated Press (AP) revealed in a detailed report horrors faced by Yemeni prisoners in UAE-controlled prisons where hundreds of Yemeni detainees have been subjected to severe torture.

Actions included harassment, rape, filming detainees while naked, subjecting prisoners’ genitals to electric shocks while also sexually violating others with wooden and steel poles.

Since then, hundreds of Yemeni detainees were freed after months or years spent in the UAE-run prisons in southern Yemen.

Among them was 23-year-old Saddam al-Azazi, held since June of last year. His mother said she fainted when she heard the news and that her daughters had to carry her to see him.

Other prisoners despaired at not being included among those released, with one trying to kill himself by taking pills, according to two witnesses who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals.

The UAE has denied it runs prisons in Yemen, insisting the Yemeni government is in full control. But Yemen’s Interior Minister Ahmed al-Maysari says he has no control over the prisons.