A Yemeni Activist Warns: Closing Secret Prisons Is “Form Without Substance” Without Holding Torturers Accountable

Yemen Monitor / Newsroom:

Human rights activist Huda al-Sirrari stated that the decision by the Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, to close illegal secret prisons and release forcibly disappeared persons represents a positive step, but one that is insufficient to achieve justice.

Al-Sirrari said that pursuing and holding accountable all officials and armed security leaders who ran these prisons is an urgent necessity, along with questioning everyone who failed in their national and moral duty and remained silent about the abuses of arrest and torture that claimed citizens’ lives and burdened the hearts of victims’ families.

She added that assuming responsibility must also include being transparent with the families of the forcibly disappeared about the fate of their loved ones, without evasion or dilution, stressing that the absence of real accountability will lead to the continued culture of impunity and leave victims’ rights suspended without solutions.