• Entesar Al-Hammadi, 20, ‘humiliated’ by transfer to wing for ‘prostitutes’

Saeed Al-Batati

ALEXANDRIA: The Yemeni model abducted and put on trial in Sanaa by the Iran-backed Houthi militia was being treated in hospital on Wednesday after trying to kill herself in prison.

Entesar Al-Hammadi’s suicide attempt took place on Monday inside a Houthi-controlled jail. Her lawyer, Khaled Mohammed Al-Kamal, told Arab News she had tried to hang herself shortly after the Houthis moved her into a wing for “prostitutes.” She was saved when a child crying out after seeing her hanging.

“She felt humiliated by the Houthis shaming her,” Al-Kamal said. “Her mental and physical condition is very, very difficult.”

Born to a Yemeni father and an Ethiopian mother, Al-Hammadi, 20, was snatched from a street in Sanaa with two friends on Feb. 20 and on put on trial on charges of prostitution, drug dealing, and breaching Islamic norms.

The Houthis refused to release her despite intense local and international pressure, and after placing her in solitary confinement, the group banned media coverage of the case and replaced a prosecutor who had ordered her release.

Al-Hammadi denied the accusations and threatened a hunger strike if the Houthis refused to free her. Yemeni activists who visited her in prison in May said she told them that the Houthis punished her for refusing to spy for them.

Michael Page, deputy Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, said Al-Hammadi was facing an unfair trial and the Houthis had prevented her lawyer from seeing case documents.

“The Houthi authorities should ensure her rights to due process, including access to her charges and evidence against her so she can challenge it, and immediately drop charges that are so broad and vague that they are arbitrary,” he said.

Ahmed Arman, Yemen’s minister of legal affairs and human rights, told Arab News the Houthi handling of the case was typical of their mistreatment of prisoners.