Case Study: Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah and Salah Nasser Salim 'Ali
Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah and Salah Nasser Salim 'Ali
Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah and Salah Nasser Salim 'Ali are friends from the Yemeni city of Aden. They described to Amnesty International their arrest and subsequent four-day detention in Jordan where they say they were tortured. For over a year and a half, the two men were then detained incommunicado without charge or trial in unknown locations, held and interrogated by guards they say came from the U.S.. Neither was ever told why they were detained. They said they were held in solitary confinement for the duration of their detention with no access to family, lawyers, diplomatic representatives or visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) or other detainees.
Although they are no longer held in solitary confinement, both Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah and Salah Nasser Salim 'Ali remain in detention in Yemen, even though the Yemeni authorities admit they have no legal reasons to hold them. Yemeni officials told Amnesty International delegates that the men are in continued detention at the request of U.S. authorities.
Amnesty International calls upon both the U.S. and Yemeni authorities to ensure that Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah and Salah Nasser Salim 'Ali are released immediately if they are not to be promptly charged with recognizably criminal offences. Both men must also be offered appropriate medical treatment and rehabilitation immediately.
Salah Nasser Salim 'Ali
Yemeni national, Salah Nasser Salim 'Ali, 27 years old, was living in Jakarta, Indonesia, with his Indonesian wife Aisha when he was arrested on August 19, 2003, while out shopping. He was held in the main immigration center in Jakarta for four days before being sent to Jordan. On arrival at Amman airport, he was taken to the detention facilities of the Jordanian intelligence service, where he says he was tortured continuously for four days. He says that he was routinely beaten by Jordanian officials, including with sticks, spat upon, verbally abused and threatened with sexual abuse and electric shocks. He also describes in detail being subjected to the torture technique known as falaqa (beatings with sticks on the soles of the feet). On one occasion the guards tried to force him to sit on a bottle so that it would penetrate his anus. It was only when he threatened to hit them with the bottle that they backed off.
Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah
Yemeni
national, Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah, aged 37, also lived in Indonesia.
In October 2003 he traveled to Jordan with his wife Zahra to be with his mother
who was about to have medical treatment there. On arrival at Amman airport,
Jordanian immigration authorities took his passport and told him to collect
it three days later. When he tried to collect it he was detained by the General
Intelligence Department (Da'irat al-Mukhabarat al-'Amah) and was asked
whether he had ever traveled to Afghanistan. He answered "yes". From
that moment, he didn't see anyone except Jordanian and U.S. prison guards and
interrogators until he was handed over to the Yemeni authorities more than a
year and a half later. While in custody in Jordan, Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah
was tortured to the extent that he broke down in distress when asked about it
by AI delegates in June 2005.
