Torture Victim Sues Saleh
Almost ten years passed since Abdul-Salam Ali Ba-Dikn has been put in a prison in Aden.
The inhumane treatment and torture by the prison officials made him decides to pursue the case against offenders to be presented to justice that he said “does not exist in Yemen”, but said he would seek international justice.
Before November 1997, Ba-Diken, the Yemeni businessman in the Gulf, was arrested for unidentified crime, but because a visit to his uncle in prison. His money and other properties have been confiscated and he has been detained for two years.
Before releasing him in January 1998, Ba-Diken said he was subjected to different forms of torture and inhumanly abused in an isolated prison for seven months. “They also threatened me to offend my family, I do not know why”, said Ba-Diken.
In the first letter to the General Prosecutor, the National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms (NODRF) asked for immediate intervention to release Ba-Diken and investigate torture and inhuman treatment against Ba-Diken for more than months.
Head of NODRF, the lawyer of Mohammad Naji Alaw, said in his letter that “Ba-Diken was moved to a dark isolated detention in Al-Sulban prison in Aden for seven months and 18 days where he was tortured”, demanding questioning with all involved in torturing Ba-Dikn and bringing them to justice.
The court that found no evidence against Ba-Dikn acquitted him, but it did not talk about rehabilitation it deserves. He said he would raise his case to the international justice to get punishment against those who tortured him and to restore his money and properties that were confiscated on no legal base.
Despite notes have been raised to president Saleh on his case, Ba-Dikn did not receive any response.
When Ba-Dikn filed a suit against prison officials accusing them of offending him for seven months, the court asked the court doctor to check him. The doctor said Ba-Dikn suffers from pains at the right of his back.
The medical examiner also said that he found signs of torture on the body of Ba-Dikn.
However, the court has not reached a verdict against offenders but acquitted Ba-Dikn on a warrant without checking justifications of putting him in jail.
Officials who expressed sympathy with Ba-Dikn only asked for brining him back his car and money, ignoring torture and illegal detention which more important for Ba-Dikn and justice advocates alike.
