Yamanat
Anas Al-Qubati
April 1, 2024
Three months to complete and Judge Abdel-Wahab Qatran has had his freedom restricted in the prisons of the Security and Intelligence Service in Sana’a.
90 days passed and Judge Abdel Wahab Qatran was not charged with a crime, of which he spent nearly 40 days in a solitary confinement cell.
Solitary confinement is considered psychological torture, due to the psychological effects it has on prisoners. In this context, former prisoners who spent long periods in solitary confinement said in interviews with Amnesty International that this experience had a profound psychological impact on them, as they began to suffer from depression, insomnia, and an unwillingness to deal with or talk to others, when they were removed from solitary confinement and allowed to By mingling with the rest of the prisoners.
Judge Abdel-Wahab Qatran is considered a prisoner of conscience, which the authorities do not want to discuss. Although he was informed that he would be released at the beginning of the month of Ramadan, according to what he informed his family during one of the visits, he was not released, which is considered a type of psychological torture. For him and his family after spending days hoping for his release.
Judge Qatran’s health has suffered a significant deterioration in his prison, to the point where he is unable to see clearly, according to what his son Muhammad, who recently visited him, said. His family says that he suffers from many diseases, including colon, diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart palpitations.
Judge Qatran’s family is complaining about the prison administration’s emphasis on visiting him, as a number of his family members returned from the prison gate more than once and were not allowed to visit him, instead of preventing them from bringing him some items and food during his visit.
Judge Qatran is considered one of the most honorable judges in Yemen. He has been calling for the independence of the judiciary for years. He is a human rights activist who has exposed many violations by the authorities. He also has an opinion that does not please the actual authorities that share the Yemeni geography. His pen is uncompromising and his voice is loud when he finds that the violations affect the sovereignty of Yemen. And the independence and unity of the homeland. Indeed, he is one of the few voices that defends people and their right to live in dignity on the soil of their homeland. He is also one of those who oppose corruption and stand up to its desires. As a result of his positions, he paid a huge price in his work, his legal benefits, and his job promotions.
Judge Abdul Wahab Qatran has been subjected to campaigns of incitement and threats based on his positions and convictions since the year 2012. During the last four years, campaigns of incitement were launched against him and his colleague Judge Ahmed Saif Hashid, adopted by visual, audio and print media, which reached the point of using obscene words offensive to modesty and demanding his imprisonment. They even went so far as to To incitement by endangering his life, or exiling him outside the geographical scope of the control of the Sana’a authority, and the last incitement campaigns took place days before his arrest.
The recent arrest of Judge Abdel Wahab Qatran was not the first, as it was preceded by two arrests. The first was at dawn on May 25, 2017, in response to the May 20 Movement’s call to go out in a protest to demand salaries, a reduction in the price of fuel, and the overthrow of wartime governments, in Tahrir Square in Sana’a, and the second after that. In months. He was also subjected to attacks during his human rights work, most notably while he was with others in the building of the Central Oversight and Accounting Organization to follow up on corruption reports submitted to the agency at the end of 2014 by an armed man from the revolutionary committees affiliated with the Houthis.
In 2013, Judge Abdel-Wahab Qatran chaired the Judicial and Justice Committee in the Shadow People’s Authority of the Revolutionary Salvation Front, which was headed by Judge Ahmed Saif Hashid. The committee issued a report that shed light on the aspects of imbalance, disorder, abuses, and corruption in the Ministry of Justice and the judiciary in general. In 2017, he was vice president of the May 20 Movement.
Judge Abdel-Wahab Qatran was arrested on January 2, 2024, after the neighborhood in which his house was located in the Al-Qaa neighborhood in the Tahrir District, the capital Sana’a, was besieged by a number of crews, armored vehicles, soldiers, and gunmen. A number of them raided his house after breaking the main door, and Judge Qatran and his family were isolated in Armored vehicles outside the house before they were returned to it, and they interrogated him and his family inside the house before taking him to detention. His house was subjected to an extensive search that lasted approximately 8 hours, during which some of the house’s contents were tampered with and damaged.
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