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Home » Kuwait » Press Releases » YEM - News » Yemen: incommunicado detention of Mr. Yahia Al-Shahrani
Mr. Adel Yahia Yahia AL-SHAHRANI was born in 1971 and lives in Sanaa. A graduate of the Faculty of Education Sana'a, he taught for several years before exercising the profession of a taxi driver.
He was arrested at his home on August 15, 2007 at 02 o'clock in the morning by members of the intelligence services who have invested his home, threatening and terrorizing all members of his family. After getting him handcuffed and blindfolded, officials have locked up his wife and four children, whose eldest is 13 years old, in one room of the house and conducted a thorough search until 07 o'clock in the morning.
After confiscating the mobile phones of his spouse, the family computer and various personal documents, agents of the intelligence services led M. Al-Shahrani to an unknown destination.
According to the testimony of his wife, no judicial warrant has been presented and the reasons for his arrest have not been notified. The raid also took place without judicial warrant.
For a month and a half, Mr. Al-Shahrani was detained without any possibility of contact with the outside world. His family has made many representations to the authorities who have always refused to discuss the case.
It is only until 1 October 2007 that this family was able to visit him, for the first and last time, in the barracks of the local intelligence services of Sanaa where he was detained. Since then, his family was no longer allowed to renew the visit.
During that unique visit, held under surveillance, his wife understood that he had been subjected to ill treatment and that no specific charges had been made against him.
No lawyer can be mandated to assist him due to the absence of any legal proceedings against him. He can not meet any council and, after nearly nine months, he still ignores the legal reasons for this detention as well as the duration of this measure.
The local association for the defence of human rights, HOUD, has on 01 February 2008 requested by writing to the Attorney General of Sanaa in order to summon the prosecutor responsible to explain, in accordance with the law, the whereabouts of M. Al-Shahrani and to require his presentation before a court if facts liable to criminal prosecution can be brought against him. No action has yet resulted following the intervention of HOUD.
The present detention of Mr. Al-Shahrani can only be interpreted as an arbitrary deprivation of liberty, contrary both to legal norms in force in the country, as well as to the relevant international standards set forth in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and ratified by Yemen on 09 February 1987.
He was arrested at his home on August 15, 2007 at 02 o'clock in the morning by members of the intelligence services who have invested his home, threatening and terrorizing all members of his family. After getting him handcuffed and blindfolded, officials have locked up his wife and four children, whose eldest is 13 years old, in one room of the house and conducted a thorough search until 07 o'clock in the morning.
After confiscating the mobile phones of his spouse, the family computer and various personal documents, agents of the intelligence services led M. Al-Shahrani to an unknown destination.
According to the testimony of his wife, no judicial warrant has been presented and the reasons for his arrest have not been notified. The raid also took place without judicial warrant.
For a month and a half, Mr. Al-Shahrani was detained without any possibility of contact with the outside world. His family has made many representations to the authorities who have always refused to discuss the case.
It is only until 1 October 2007 that this family was able to visit him, for the first and last time, in the barracks of the local intelligence services of Sanaa where he was detained. Since then, his family was no longer allowed to renew the visit.
During that unique visit, held under surveillance, his wife understood that he had been subjected to ill treatment and that no specific charges had been made against him.
No lawyer can be mandated to assist him due to the absence of any legal proceedings against him. He can not meet any council and, after nearly nine months, he still ignores the legal reasons for this detention as well as the duration of this measure.
The local association for the defence of human rights, HOUD, has on 01 February 2008 requested by writing to the Attorney General of Sanaa in order to summon the prosecutor responsible to explain, in accordance with the law, the whereabouts of M. Al-Shahrani and to require his presentation before a court if facts liable to criminal prosecution can be brought against him. No action has yet resulted following the intervention of HOUD.
The present detention of Mr. Al-Shahrani can only be interpreted as an arbitrary deprivation of liberty, contrary both to legal norms in force in the country, as well as to the relevant international standards set forth in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and ratified by Yemen on 09 February 1987.