ADEN 17 September 2018: Lt. Colonel Ahmed Al Aqrabi, Head of Beir Ahmed Reformatory, has denied the presence of secret prisons in Aden run out of the purview of the Ministry of Interior and the judiciary.
He stated that funded-media smear campaigns were propagating lies and fabrications rather than seeking the truth to publish.
”Doors of the reformatory are always open before any media organ seeking the truth. Any media outlet can come and meet the management as well as sit with prisoners and ask them about their conditions,” he added.
He indicated that relatives of prisoners usually visit them every Sunday. ”Also prisoners appear before courts and criminal prosecutions openly,” he stressed.
According to him, a number of international organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, had visited the facility and had direct and transparent interactions with prisoners about their conditions. These organsiations, he noted, had sensed the compliance of the facility with international human rights principles.
He said that large numbers of prisoners had been released as per judicial rulings or by the prosecution after they underwent a three-month rehabilitation and inclusion programme.