AP investigative reporter Maggie Michael has done landmark reporting on Yemen’s civil war throughout the past year, revealing abuses by the Saudi-led coalition that controls much of the south of the country.
But there had been a major gap in the coverage for all media: putting the same scrutiny on the other side in the conflict, the Houthi rebels who control the north. The Houthis impose strict controls on reporters, and sources are afraid to talk, problems that have prevented journalists from reporting in-depth on abuses carried out by the Houthis during the 4-year-old civil war.
Michael found another way. She and Cairo photographer Nariman El-Mofty travelled to the coalition-controlled city of Marib, where they could meet freely with victims of the Houthis who had fled the rebels’ rule. There, former prisoners described horrifying tortures at the hands of the Houthis – being beaten, burned by acid, having their fingernails torn out and being hung for weeks by their wrists from the ceiling, a torment one prisoner said was worse than the electrical shocks he’d also been given.
Monir al-Sharqi walks to his bed after nurses changed the dressings on his burns, at the Marib General Hospital in Yemen, July 25, 2018. Al-Sharqi, a lab technician, disappeared for a year, until he was dumped in a stream, half-naked, emaciated and bearing horrific marks of torture. He had burns from acid over his head, back and shoulders, so severe that his jacket stuck to his melted skin. Some members of his family believe he was detained and tortured by Yemen’s Houthi rebels because of his past political activism.
AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty
A photo of Monir al-Sharqi, after he was pulled from a stream with marks of severe torture, is displayed on a mobile phone at the Marib General Hospital in Yemen, July 25, 2018. A year after disappearing, al-Sharqi, a lab technician, was found dumped in the stream with acid burns over his head, back and shoulders. Some members of his family believe he was detained and tortured by Yemen’s Houthi rebels because of his past political activism.
AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty
Monir al-Sharqi rests after taking a walk at the Marib General Hospital in Yemen, July 25, 2018 photo. Family members and other activists believe he was detained for a year by Houthi rebels, who tortured him so severely that he lost his memory and can barely speak, mumbling unintelligibly when asked questions.
AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty
Yemeni medic Farouk Baakar demonstrates in Marib, Yemen, July 29, 2018, how he was shackled to a wall during his torture in a prison run by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Baakar was one of thousands of people imprisoned by Houthi militia during four years of civil war. Many of them, an Associated Press investigation has found, have suffered extreme forms of torture.
AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty
Anas al-Sarrari sits in a wheelchair at his home in Marib, Yemen, July 29, 2018. The 26-year-old activist said he was left paralyzed by torture at the hands of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, hung from a prison ceiling by his wrists almost non-stop for 60 days and severely beaten.
AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty
Anas al-Sarrari sits in his wheelchair during a power outage in his home in Marib, Yemen, July 29, 2018. The 26-year-old activist recalled how after 60 days of being hung by his wrists from the ceiling and being beaten in a prison of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, he was thrown into a cell and discovered his legs no longer worked. He spent four more months on the cell floor, often banging his head on the wall in desperation.
AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty
Mohammed al-Washie, a journalist who was captured and tortured by Houthi rebels, poses for a photograph in Marib, Yemen, July 26, 2018. His captors broke his leg, he said. He is among thousands of Yemenis who were imprisoned at clandestine sites in Houthi-held territories, many of whom where tortured.
AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty
An X-ray belonging to Mohammed al-Washie, a journalist who was captured and tortured by Houthis, is displayed in Marib, Yemen, July 26, 2018. Al-Washie was detained in Oct. 2015 by Houthi militiamen in the city of Dhamar after he appeared in a list of wanted journalists and activists. He was tortured and had his leg broken.
AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty
Houthi Shiite fighters stand guard during a rally to mark the third anniversary of the Houthis’ takeover of the Yemeni capital, in Sanaa, Yemen, Sept. 21, 2017. In a Sept. 2018 statement, Human Rights Watch accused the Houthis of committing abuses including hostage taking, torture and forced disappearances of people they hold in detention. The agency said Yemeni government forces and forces loyal to the United Arab Emirates have also arbitrarily detained, tortured and forced the disappearance of scores of people in the Yemeni conflict.
AP Photo / Hani Mohammed
Supporters of Shiite Houthi rebels attend a rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 5, 2017.
AP Photo / Hani Mohammed
The mother, right, of a Yemeni detainee who has been held for months in Houthi prison, and the man’s wife, pose in Marib, Yemen, July 25, 2018. The detainee is among thousands held without charges by Houthi militias, detained in raids targeting opponents of the Houthi rebels, who run a de facto government from Yemen’s capital Sanaa.
AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty
A man who said he was tortured by Houthis poses for a photograph in Marib, Yemen, July 26, 2018. The 24-year-old student said he was imprisoned for months, during which he was beaten and hung from a ceiling by his handcuffed wrists. He spoke on condition he not be identified, fearing Houthis would come after family members still in northern Yemen.
AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty
Nariman’s riveting visuals encapsulated the suffering, including photos of a man recovering from horrific acid burns, draped in red bandages. The man had been tortured so badly he’d lost his mind and couldn’t even tell what had happened to him.
Months of source reporting also gained Michael a major scoop. A senior Houthi official sent her video by an internal Houthi committee that investigated torture in the movement’s prisons, before it was squashed by Houthi hardliners. The video included the Houthi leader’s own brother urging an end to the use of torture. It was more than that – the exclusive news revealed splits among the Houthis and an unprecedented look into the internal workings of a group often seen as a monolithic force.
The news, accompanied by an explainer video by Peter Hamlin, was timely as the Houthis and their opponents held peace talks about the release of prisoners. Rather than denying the story, a top Houthi figure reacted by calling for an investigation into allegations of torture in the movement’s prisons.
The work, supported partly by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, was a breakthrough in coverage of the war, as it has been rare to see atrocities by Houthis so prominently featured. It gained widespread praise among Yemen experts. Gregory Johnsen, one of the most prominent analysts of Yemen, tweeted:
The story won wide play and Michael was interviewed on NPR about the team’s work.
For their investigation that exposed in raw, excruciating detail the scope of torture
committed by the Houthis, Michael and El-Mofty share AP's Best of the Week award.