Mohammed bin Zayed Under French Investigations on Yemen Prison Torture
The Mohammed bin Zayed Yemen military intervention may probably have ended, but the traces of brutal civilian killings and torture continue to bleed with the United Arab Emirates’ influence in the region. However, the one, who inflicted the wounds on the Arabia Felix, is under an investigation by an investigating judge in France over his involvement in the Yemen civil war.
On July 17, 2020, the Agence France Presse (AFP) revealed that the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi was being investigated by a Paris investigating magistrate on accusations of “complicity in acts of torture” of prisoners during the war.
In November 2018, during Mohammed bin Zayed’s official visit to Paris, two complaints were filed against him for complying into the torture and enforced disappearance in the Yemeni detention centers controlled by the UAE.
One of the two complaints was filed by with the constitution of a civil party, which enables to automatically obtain the right to open a judicial investigation and appoint a magistrate for the probe. An initial judicial investigation into the Mohammed bin Zayed Yemen human rights violations was opened in October 2019.
Under the “universal jurisdiction” for the most serious crimes, French justice has a right of prosecuting and convicting the perpetrators and accomplices of such crimes in their country. However, for the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince the fate will be decided by the investigating magistrate mandated to carry the probe.
The first case against the Emirati ruler was filed by six Yemenis with the constitution of civil party, who denounced the acts of torture they faced in detention centers controlled by the armed forces of the UAE. One of them was “placed in a 'hole' as large as a barrel for forty-eight hours, with his feet and hands tied with wires”. He was “stripped and hung by his hands from the ceiling for several hours”, electrocuted and burned by cigarettes.
In past more than five years, Yemen has diminished into a wasteland due the proxy war initiated by the Saudi-led coalition, which until some time ago included the UAE. However, after years of human rights violations and extensive killings of civilians, the Emirates reduced its military presence and betrayed its strongest Middle Eastern ally, Saudi Arabia.
After Mohammed bin Zayed Yemen objectives were met by the means of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), which captured both the Port of Aden and Socotra. The United Arab Emirates, after killing thousands of civilians, achieved its economic interests and also withdrew its support to Saudi Arabia.
