Press Conference in Sana’a Highlights Saudi Arabia’s Violations Against Yemenis

A press conference was held in Sana’a today to discuss the violations committed by the Saudi regime against Yemenis, under the slogan “Brutal crimes and grave violations amid international complicity.”

At the press conference, organized by the Ministries of Human Rights and Expatriate Affairs, Human Rights Minister Ali al-Dailami stressed that thousands of Yemenis in Saudi Arabia are continuously and increasingly subjected to various crimes and violations. He pointed out that the Saudi regime is using these violations and crimes against Yemeni residents as a means of waging war on Yemen.

Al-Dailami added that nearly 50,000 Yemenis are detained in prisons without trials or legal proceedings to condemn them or prove their violations of Saudi law. More than 20,000 Yemeni detainees have been subjected to unfair trials on fabricated and malicious charges.

The minister indicated that the Saudi regime has issued rushed judgments, lacking all the basics of litigation. This constitutes a violation of their rights to a fair trial, freedom, security, and personal safety. He noted that the ministry received information about 50 expatriates who received prison sentences of several decades and 20 expatriates who received death sentences.

Al-Dailami said the ministry has verified that the Saudi regime is detaining between 300 and 500 expatriate women in Al-Kharj prison. He emphasized that the Saudi regime refuses to hand over the bodies of executed victims to their families for burial in their homeland.

The Human Rights Minister reported that the Saudi regime practices the most severe forms of physical and psychological torture against detainees, confiscating their money and property. Despite international reports condemning the Saudi regime, he said international complicity continues.

Al-Dailami called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to make more efforts to obtain the bodies of victims who died inside prisons due to torture or those executed by the Saudi regime for burial in their homeland. He also urged the UN Security Council to form an independent and non-political committee to visit Saudi prisons, investigate the truth, and seriously investigate the crimes of the Saudi regime and all its violations against Yemenis and non-Yemenis.

In turn, the Deputy Minister of Expatriate Affairs, Zayed Al-Riami, clarified that the Saudi regime’s violations against expatriates began in the early 1990s when they imposed the sponsorship system, which is a form of slavery. He pointed out that the Saudi regime seizes the money and property of Yemeni expatriates without any legal or legitimate reason.

Al-Riami added that since the beginning of the aggression, the Saudi regime has started a deportation system for expatriates, deporting 500,000 of them. He said that 89 Yemeni expatriates have been executed in Saudi Arabia since 2014, and one of the executed had no crime other than grieving for the martyr Qassem Soleimani.

He noted that the Yemeni expatriate in Saudi Arabia is now haunted by the specter of captivity, torture, and death, even without any relation to the war. Al-Riami explained that obtaining visas for Yemeni expatriates has become costly and at large sums, and the violations Yemeni expatriates face in Saudi Arabia are unmatched by any other expatriates in any country worldwide.

The Deputy Minister of Expatriate Affairs confirmed that more than 300 Yemeni female prisoners and expatriates in Saudi prisons are subjected to torture.