Over alleged human rights violations 54 security men prosecuted [Archives:2004/734/Front Page]

Mohammed Al-Qadhi
Around 54 security officers charged with violating human rights have been prosecuted, official sources said.
The sources said that among those security men are people charged with murder, torture or other crimes while investigating or arresting citizens on different charges.
Fifteen security men have been charged with practicing intimidations or attacks while doing their investigation, while 11 others have accused of gunfire, blackmailing citizens during doing their duty.
The sources said that those people who were prosecuted were proved guilty and were sentenced to either firing or suspended from their jobs, or to blood money fine.
The heaviest punishment against those security men who violate human rights is the ten year imprisonment against three of them.
However, some human rights activists said that the reports on the cases of such violations registered by the ministry of interior are not accurate and that a lot of such cases take place on a daily basis but nobody knows about them.
Earlier this year, reports talked about violations of human rights inside Yemeni prisons, including torture. In a research paper by a Yemeni academic, it was found out that security men still represent a fear for citizens due to their horrifying practices.
Dr. Mohammed Abdullah al-Mouyad, professor of international law at Sana'a University said in his paper that the improvement of the human rights record in Yemen is totally stipulated by the improvement of the security authorities' work.
He pointed out that violations of human rights by security men take place due to their ignorance of the law or lack of accountability.
He said that people still look at security men as a means of terror and repression, indicating that local and international reports recruited big officials' confessions of such violations and abuses of human rights on the part of security men, despite the ban of misuse of authority or torture.
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