Yemeni woman faces death threats after exposing UAE secret jails in Aden

The Yemeni activist and lawyer Huda al-Sarari was subjected to threats and harrasments after she exposed stories of torture in secret prisons allegedly run by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Aden.

Sarari, who documented the abuses during an investigation published later by Human Rights Watch in June, received death threats following a systematic smear campaign.

“I was afraid to leave my house or speak to media for more than a month,” Sarari told Middle East Eye. “But now, I want the word out, at least, about the dreadful experience human rights activists have to bear."

The defamation campaign against Sarari started in June on social media, after Human Rights Watch and the Associated Press published two separate investigations accusing the UAE of running secret prisons in Yemen, where many people were reportedly tortured and abused.

According to the HRW report, 49 people, including four children, were arbitrarily detained or forcibly disappeared in the Aden and Hadramawt governates over the last year. At least 38 appear to have been arrested or detained by UAE-backed security forces.

Multiple sources, including Yemeni government officials, have reported the existence of a number of informal detention centres and prisons in Aden and Hadramawt, including at least two run by the UAE and others run by UAE-backed Yemeni security forces. 

The UAE Foreign Ministry denied running any secret prisons in Yemen and called the accusations "an attempt to sully the reputation of the alliance that had intervened to save the Yemeni people". 

Click here to read Sarari's interview with Middle East Eye: http://www.middleeasteye.net/in-depth/features/being-activist-yemeni-wom...