"I couldn't bear it any longer… even if I was an animal I wouldn't put up with it." Salah Nasser Salim 'Ali speaking about his secret detention by US authorities
For almost two years Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah and Salah Nasser Salim 'Ali, both Yemeni nationals, were detained incommunicado without charge or trial in unknown locations, guarded by men "with American accents". They were never given any reason for their detention. When AI delegates visited them in prison in Yemen in June, they told how they were held in solitary confinement since 2003 with no access to family, lawyers or diplomatic representatives.
They remain in detention in Yemen, despite the authorities' admission that they have no reason to continue holding them. Yemeni officials told AI that the men are in continued detention at the request of the US authorities.
Salah Nasser Salim 'Ali was seized in Jakarta, Indonesia, in August 2003 and told by Indonesian officials that he would be deported back to Yemen via Jordan. He was detained on arrival in Jordan. Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah was detained in Jordan in October 2003. The two men were initially held in solitary confinement for approximately four days in Jordan. Salah Nasser Salim 'Ali says that he was routinely beaten by Jordanian officials. He was spat upon, verbally abused and threatened with sexual abuse and electrocution. He also described being subjected to the torture technique known as falaqa (beatings on the soles of the feet).
The men described how they were then blindfolded, shackled and transported by plane to another location. Both men state that the guards were from the USA.
They were held in an underground facility with high walls. Western music was piped into the cells 24 hours a day. Neither knew the other was detained. Held in solitary confinement, they had "disappeared" from the rest of the world.
About six months later they were transferred to another unknown site which they described as a modern, purpose-built, underground detention facility run by US officials. It was fully air-conditioned with modern toilets and surveillance cameras in the cells. At no point did they have contact with other detainees. Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah estimated that there were about 15 or 20 others detained in the same facility.
The two men were released from secret detention and transferred back to Yemen in May, with no explanation. They remain detained in the central prison of Aden. Neither has been charged or tried with any offence and neither can understand the reasons for his continued detention. Salah Nasser Salim 'Ali now has a daughter nearly two years old who he has never seen. In June, Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah said: "In Yemen I thought they would open their hearts to me, but instead they opened the prisons. I thought they would appreciate the suffering I have been through".
ACT NOW!
Please write to the Yemeni authorities, urging them to release Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah and Salah Nasser Salim 'Ali immediately unless they are to be promptly charged with recognizable criminal offences in a trial that guarantees the minimum international standards for fair trial.
Send letters to: His Excellency, Dr Rashid Muhammad al-'Alimi, Minister of the Interior, Ministry of the Interior, Sana'a, Yemen. Fax: +967 1 332 511.
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