Utterly heartbreaking listening to an elderly woman called me from Sana'a, "Is my son's name on list of prisoner swap, please, I have but one necklace of gold and will send it if you can get his name on list." Her son, an activist, was taken by Houthis last year. #Yemen
His name is on the list. So are hundreds of extrajudicially detained, forcibly disappeared, and forced into confessing crimes never committed for merely daring voice dissent and calling out corruption. Ugly truth of upcoming prisoner swap is also being largely hostage swap #Yemen
But you need to understand something, it does not matter to families and friends as long as their loved ones are finally freed. Also, what matters most, are guarantees of safety and freedom AFTER release, which sadly do not currently exist. #Yemen
I can tell you from personal experience, worst part after my release was fear of being thrown back in that wretched solitary cell. Kept me up at night, and flinched every time someone knocked on door. Possibility of hunt down or killed by a trigger happy militia was high. #Yemen
I still remember many friends a family warning me against making any public OR private comments as I was certainly being watched, and many repeating, "you've been sprung from a small prison to a bigger one (i.e #Yemen), so keep a low profile for your sake and that of your kids".
Just to wrap this up, prisoner/hostage swap is still a good thing, but we're far from freedom from prosecution in #Yemen. As a matter of fact, while preparing lists of those seeking to free in upcoming weeks, many others have been taken and forcibly disappeared in past few days.
