Alkarama submitted these two cases to the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary execution on 23 December 2009, requesting that he remind the Yemeni authorities of their obligations to investigate these deaths and prosecute those found responsible.

The facts: Majed Al-Odeini

On 29 July 2009, Majed Al-Odeini was shot dead by security services from the Al-Modhaffar Directorate while waiting to attend his own court hearing at the Primary Court in West Taaz.

Mr Al-Obeidi's father then filed a complaint with the West Taaz Prosecution on 1 August 2009. The accused were eventually presented before the court, but security services agents from the Al-Modhaffar Directorate entered the court room and smuggled the accused out of the court house through a back exit. These men are now considered fugitives from justice yet continue to work with security services without scrutiny.

The facts: Saleh Al-Wasabi

On 8 July 2008, during a tribal dispute between Saleh Al-Wasabi and one of his relatives, security services were called in to help settle the disagreement. After the quarrel was peacefully resolved, the security services demanded to be paid for their service, which Mr Al-Wasabi refused. The security services officers then stripped Mr Al-Wasabi naked, handcuffed and beat him until he was unconscious. They finally executed him, in front of his children, with a bullet to the abdomen.

On 28 January 2009 and 2 February 2009, separate directives were issued to refer the perpetrators to the courts; first by the Office of the Presidency and then by the President of the Republic to the Minister of Interior. Eventually on 10 June 2009, the Ministry of Interior gave orders that these men implicated in Mr Al-Wasabi's death should be arrested and handed over to the Prosecution. Despite these undertakings, no one has been tried.

The pattern continues

Majed Al-Odeini and Saleh Al-Wasabi's deaths represent a growing sense of immunity felt by the Yemeni security services in the face of the law. These acts of impunity carried out by Yemeni state agents are unfortunately not isolated incidents.

Alkarama urges the Yemeni government to take action against these crimes. The Committee against Torture, during Yemen's second periodic review in November 2009, stated in their Concluding Observations that the Yemeni authorities should "take effective steps to investigate promptly and impartially all allegations of involvement of members of the law enforcement and security agencies in extrajudicial killings."