A Father Complains About the Situation of His Son Who Has Been Arbitrarily Detained for About Five Years

Samir Ahmed (pseudonym), who is 44 years old and married with two daughters and a son, lives with his family in his father’s house in the Wadi Hadramout area of the Hadramout governorate. He had to leave school before completing basic grades due to his family’s circumstances. His father was sick, which forced him to take on various jobs to earn a livelihood, even in remote areas outside of his district.

One day, Samir went to work as a mason in a mud house located in the Zamkh wa Manoukh district of the desert regions. After completing his work, which lasted for two weeks, he returned to his home in the Wadi area. However, a year and a half later, his story of suffering began, which continues to this day.

Samir’s father recounts what happened, saying:

“At dawn on the second Sunday of June 2019, which corresponded to the 28th day of Ramadan, I heard the sound of vehicles stopping next to the house during the quiet hours of the morning. I got up and went to the window to check who our visitor was, only to see armored military vehicles and people moving quickly among the houses nearby. It was still dark, so I couldn’t make out how many there were or who they were.

I was scared and shivering, wondering what was going on. After just a few minutes, I heard loud knocking and kicking on our house door. As a disabled person, I couldn’t move and called on my son Nader (the victim’s brother) to quickly see who was at the door. Nader was preparing to go to the mosque for fajr prayer, so he quickly ran downstairs to open the door.

As Nader reached the door to open it, it was pushed hard towards him and soldiers broke into the house. They put Nader on the ground and arrested him. Meanwhile, another group of soldiers rushed into the house, appearing to search for something. These soldiers wore light brown military uniforms and carried machine guns. Nader yelled, “Who are you and what do you want?” However, two soldiers quickly handcuffed him and took him outside.

Nader was stunned when he saw around 15 armored vehicles and several military pickups belonging to the First Military Region Command, which is affiliated with the internationally recognized government. Few minutes later, two armored vehicles stopped, and a tall man wearing a white thowb got out of one of them. He was surrounded by masked soldiers in black military uniforms who guarded him with machine guns, indicating his importance. The man walked past me, staring at me, and spoke to one of the soldiers. It seemed from his orders that he was the commander of the large force that had stormed the house. In a Saudi dialect, he asked the soldier, ‘Did you find it?’”

Nader continues recounting the story, saying:

“The soldiers handcuffed my brother Samir after raiding his room, where he was sleeping with his family. I yelled, ‘What do you want from my brother and what has he done?’ The man wearing the white thowb replied, ‘Your brother belongs to the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda.’ I was shocked by his words and told him that my brother is a simple person and has never belonged to any organization.

The man interrupted me and ordered the soldiers to search the house for any explosives or weapons. The soldiers addressed him as ‘Abu Nawaf’ and informed him that they were still searching. Then he asked Samir, ‘Do you have any weapons?’ Samir replied, ‘I don’t even own a personal gun. Why do we need weapons when Allah is our protector?’.

The soldiers took Samir to one of the military pickups under the orders of the man in the white thowb, who stared intently at Samir’s sixteen-year-old son and asked him in an intimidating tone, “What is your name?” After the child replied, he asked another question, “Are there any hidden weapons here?” The child responded, “We have nothing.” The man then left for his armored vehicle along with the rest of the force after they searched the house, raided Samir’s room, and confiscated Samir’s cell phones as well as the house’s ownership deeds other documents belonging to Samir.”

Samir’s father says:

“After they took my son Samir, we, Nadir, Munther (Samir’s son, a pseudonym) and I, went to the police station in Al-Katn district in the morning to look for Samir. They told us he was not there. We then went to the Security Department in Seiyun district, the Security Department in Al-Wadi and the desert district, and finally to the Central Prison, but all of them said that he was not in their custody. We returned home with disappointment written all over our faces, fearing the unknown fate of our son. The captors did not respect the sanctity of the holy month, nor Samir’s elderly mother, nor me, a disabled person who cannot move. Days passed, and Samir’s fate remained unknown. Every knock on our door and every phone call made our hearts and emotions tremble with the hope of hearing from Samir or getting news about him, but all in vain.

One morning, three months after Samir’s detention and disappearance, the phone rang. I picked up the phone and it was Samir calling. I gasped and shouted at the top of my voice, to the extent that the whole family gathered around me. He told me that he was fine but being held in the mud prison in Seiyun. He asked me to extend his greetings to everyone and then hung up.

We couldn’t hold back our tears after hearing his voice filled with sadness and sorrow. The next morning, Nader and I went to the First Military Zone Command, but the gate guard prevented us from entering. When we told him what we wanted, he replied in a harsh tone that visitation was not allowed and ordered us to leave.

Despite this, we waited a few steps from the gate, hoping that the guard might show us mercy and let us enter, but it was to no avail. So we returned home. Three days later, we went back to the same place again, and received the same response. After several attempts to persuade the guard to call the person in charge of the prison, he finally agreed to our demand and allowed us to enter only after conducting a search.

We entered the prison compound on foot and walked a long distance from the gate to reach an old building with heavy security. The prison guard brought us to Samir, who was waiting for us. We hugged him with longing and tears streaming down our faces, and asked about his condition. He said, ‘I’m fine, Dad’, but it was clear that he wasn’t. When I asked him why his face was pale, he just looked at me and didn’t say a word. A while later, a soldier came and told us that the visit was over.”

According to Samir’s father and brother, he was taken handcuffed to Seiyun by military vehicles. From there, he was taken to the headquarters of the First Military Zone and placed in an abandoned building with heavy security, where two armored vehicles guarded the entrance. Subsequently, he was put in a cell within that building. After being locked up in the cell, he was not spoken to for a few days and was not even informed of the reason for his detention.

Samir also said that in the cell, he was provided with a small amount of food that was barely enough to keep him alive. He was then interrogated by committees from the Ministry of Defense. Their questions focused on his affiliation with Al-Qaeda, war operations attributed to him, in addition to many other questions.

However, it didn’t end there. Samir was forcibly disappeared once again, and his parents and family had no information about him. The sorrowful father mentioned that he repeatedly attempted to visit his son but was not allowed every time. He added:

“We appealed to the military prosecutor, the Hadramout deputy governor for the affairs of the Wadi and Desert district, the command of the Saudi-led coalition, and the sheikhs and notables for help, but they only made promises to follow up on the case. We received no actual response from them.

Days and months passed while we suffered and cried for our son. We kept trying to visit him until we were finally allowed a second visit after six long months. This time, I went with Samir’s mother, wife, and children. Samir hugged each one of us tightly, holding us close to his chest and crying. The feelings of joy were mixed with sadness, until someone came to tell us that the visit was over. Once again, he was forcibly disappeared, this time due to alleged security measures and the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, his situation has remained unchanged.”