Ammar Abdallah Mohamed Fadel, 30, was arrested at his home on 17 December 2009 by Political Security agents accompanied by military officers who help raid and occupy his home. During the foray, several of his family members, including young children were abused. According to sources, his arrest was part of a wider campaign of arrests which took place in capital between 17 and 24 December 2009.

His brother, Fawaz Abdallah Mohamed Fadel, 27, was arrested in mid-August 2009 at Sana'a airport after returning from a business trip. The said pretext for his arrest is having left the Yemen without permission.

Following both their arrests, they were taken to an unknown destination in Sana'a and held for several months without due process. To date, the brothers have not been presented in front of a magistrate in order to be formally charged and currently have no access to a lawyer.

Due to the severity of their situation, Alkarama alerted the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the brothers' cases in the hopes of putting pressure on the Yemeni authorities in order that they be brought to justice. Their detention is clearly arbitrary, as it contradicts the standards established in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Yemen is party, as well as contravening with domestic law.

The Committee against Torture, during its second periodic review of Yemen in November 2009, expressed its concern over "the widespread use of mass arrests without warrant and arbitrary and prolonged detention without charges or judicial proceedings."

It is clear that the practice of incommunicado detention and without any legal process or judicial proceedings constitutes a serious violation of fundamental rights, no matter the pretext.