Yemen: Zakaria Al-Hijri - two years, three prisons, still no legal proceedings

On 22 May 2008, officers from the Political Security services arrested Zakaria Al-Hijri at a checkpoint in the Sahoul district of Ibb. He spent his first two weeks in solitary confinement at the Political Security detention center in Ibb. During his first two months, he was held incommunicado at the detention center, and his family was kept in the dark as to his whereabouts and the reasons for his arrest.

In the past two years, Zakaria Al-Hijri has never been the subject of any legal proceedings, appeared before a judge or even been informed of the reasons for his arrest. He has had no access to legal counsel or any means of challenging the lawfulness of his detention.
Alkarama sent his case to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on 22 May 2010, exactly two years to the day of his arrest. Alkarama requested that Zakaria Al-Hijri be immediately released put under the authority of the law or they release him immediately.

Zakaria Mohamed Sadek Abdallah Al-Hijri is a 24 year-old student from Ibb.

Following his first two months detention in Ibb, Zakaria Al-Hijri was then transferred to the Political Security services detention center in Sana'a, where he was detained for nearly a year before being taken back to the detention center in Ibb.

It has become clear that Zakaria Al-Hijri's detention is arbitrary and in violation of both Yemeni domestic law and the international human rights laws to which Yemen is party.

The Committee against Torture said in its concluding observations, during its last periodic review of Yemen (CAT/C/YEM/CO/2) on 3 November 2009, that it remained seriously concerned by the failure of the State to offer all detainees, including those placed in security prisons, the fundamental guarantees at the outset of their detention, including the right to immediately contact a lawyer; to have independent medical examination; to notify a close relative of their whereabouts; to be informed of their rights and the charges against them at the time of detention; and to appear before a judge within international standards.