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In Yemen’s Secret Prisons, UAE Tortures, the US Interrogates

In Yemen’s Secret Prisons, UAE Tortures, the US Interrogates
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The United Arab Emirates runs at least two secret prisons in Yemen and "disappears" high-profile inmates abroad for interrogation by US spies, two separate investigations reported on Thursday.

In Yemen’s Secret Prisons, UAE Tortures, the US Interrogates

A report by Human Rights Watch said Emirati forces were arbitrarily arresting or forcibly disappearing Yemenis and appeared to have "moved high-profile detainees outside the country" including to a base in Eritrea.

In a separate investigation, US defense officials told the Associated Press that US forces had participated in the interrogations of hundreds of prisoners in the Emirati-run jails inside Eritrea and Yemen.

They said US senior military leaders were aware of allegations of torture at the prisons in Yemen, looked into them, but were satisfied that there had not been any abuse when US forces were present.

The UAE is a key member of a Saudi-led military coalition Bombing Yemen since 2015.

HRW said it had documented 49 cases, including those of four children, who had been "arbitrarily detained or forcibly disappeared" - at least 38 of them by UAE-backed forces.

The New York-based group said the UAE runs detention facilities in southern provinces home to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula [AQAP] and a local affiliate of Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the Takfiri ‘ISIS/ISIL' group]. Children are among those in the centers, it said.

HRW also accused UAE-backed Yemeni forces tasked with fighting Daesh and al-Qaeda of arbitrarily detaining, kidnapping and torturing dozens of people during their ‘security' operations.

"You don't effectively fight extremist groups like al-Qaeda or ISIS by disappearing dozens of young men and constantly adding to the number of families with ‘missing' loved ones in Yemen," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

"The UAE and its partners should place protecting detainee rights at the center of their security campaigns if they care about Yemen's long-term stability."

Responding to these accusations, Shelby Sullivan-Bennis, a lawyer with Reprieve US specializing in counter-terrorism abuses, said: "The revelation of US involvement in Yemen's secret prison network is an international disgrace and raises serious questions for President Trump.

"President Trump must learn that torture doesn't work and only hardens hearts and minds against us," said Bennis.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

 

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