Sana'a -- A groundbreaking local investigative report has revealed that the Houthi militia in Yemen has been using chemical substances and narcotic drugs to subdue detainees and forcibly extract confessions inside its secret prisons. 

The report, described as the first of its kind, documents harrowing accounts of prisoners subjected to drug injections and forced consumption of narcotics during interrogation sessions between 2015 and 2023.

According to the investigation, these practices represent one of the most egregious forms of torture, violating fundamental human rights and international conventions against torture.

The report traces the story of several detainees, including Rami Mohammed, who was captured on July 27, 2019, in the town of Munabbih Al Thabit in northwestern Saada.

 Blindfolded and taken through a long underground corridor, he was held in a basement where Houthi interrogators discovered he was not an ordinary soldier but an operations officer in a government aligned battalion. Despite enduring repeated physical torture, Rami refused to confess.

When the interrogators failed to break him, they strapped him to a chair, bound his hands behind his back, and blindfolded him. Suddenly, he felt a sharp needle prick in his shoulder. Within minutes, he slipped into delirium.

The investigation notes that Rami’s ordeal was not unique. He became one of many detainees prisoners and abductees alike who were forcibly injected or compelled to ingest drugs during interrogations, leaving them vulnerable to coerced confessions.

Human rights advocates say the findings underscore the urgent need for international accountability and monitoring of detention practices in Yemen, as such acts constitute grave violations of humanitarian law and international treaties prohibiting torture.