NEW YORK CITY: The UN’s human rights chief on Friday demanded that the Houthis immediately return the body of a UN staff member who died in their custody in Yemen.
The high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, also warned that another detained UN worker might have been tortured into making “confessions” that were filmed and circulated online this week.
Two weeks after the UN learned of the death of Mohammed Ibrahim El-Shami, a Yemeni employee of the UN Human Rights Office, the Houthis have still not handed over his body to his relatives, UN spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said in Geneva. He is believed to have died at least a month before the family was informed.
In addition to demanding that El-Shami’s body be handed over to his family, Turk called on the Houthi de facto authorities to urgently provide the precise date, cause and circumstances of his death, and to ensure that those responsible were held to account.
“Our colleague must be laid to rest in a dignified manner in accordance with the wishes of his family, which was denied contact with him for two years while he was in detention,” Shamdasani said.
The Human Rights Office also condemned videos shared by the Houthis this week that showed another of its detained employees making “confessions”
