Methods of torture in Saudi-led coalition prisons in Yemen: Rape using devices, hot pepper, salt and bone smashing

Al Jazeera received a secret report prepared by former military officials who worked with the Saudi-UAE alliance in Yemen on the conditions of prisons and secret detention centres and forced disappearances.

The information in the report matched the testimonies of prisoners and abductees given to human rights activists. Such details also reinforced what had been revealed by the Associated Press in previous investigations.

The report revealed some of the atrocities taking place in these secret UAE-controlled prisons situated in southern Yemen. The violations range from murdering detainees and abductees to torture and deprivation. Moreover, the report listed sites and names of secret graves, detainees tortured to death and missing persons, as well as identities of the torturers and the details of interrogations.

Read: UAE sexually torture Yemeni prisoners

The report lists the types of physical and psychological torture conducted in the prisons administered directly by Emiratis, including rape with devices or sticks or directly by other individuals, electrocution in the chest, armpits and male organs, as well as flogging with sticks, rods, cables and ropes.

The executioners also use the method of holding detainees in the air, applying hot pepper and salt on open wounds, sleep and medicines deprivation, slapping and kicking, pouring cold water on the body, and insulting as well as cursing them.

The ecret prisons are under the supervision of Aden’s security director, Ali Shayi Hadi, who is loyal to UAE. In these prisons, detainees are subjected to severe torture sessions. These include flaying their skin using rods and hammers, electric shocks, smashing bone with stones, burning body parts with melted plastic, placing the detainees in a narrow space called “Al-Dhaghata,” (the pressure space) in addition to pressing the testicles with plastic ropes, and sticking needles under the nails.

The report reveals that in the prisons of Ali Shayi Hadi, a person named Awad Rashad and nicknamed the “beast” is also involved in the killing of the detainees. Rashad was recently transferred to an unknown location or assassinated for the secrets he knew and was replaced by another called Ali Al-Emirati to oversee the tortures going on.

Read: Human rights workers at risk in Yemen