A four-member committee has begun its work in Sana'a to investigate the fate of the kidnapped Yemeni politician Mohammed Qahtan. This action is part of an agreement between the Yemeni government and the Houthi militia concerning detainees, occurring amidst growing suspicions surrounding the circumstances of the death of the Yemeni Islah Party leader, who had been forcibly disappeared for years.
The committee includes representatives from the government's negotiation delegation for detainees, a technical team comprising a forensic expert and a pathologist, alongside members of Qahtan's family and representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Houthi group, as stipulated by the agreement signed between the parties.
The committee's mandate is to ascertain the fate of Qahtan, who has been held by the Houthis since 2015 without his status being disclosed. This is in preparation for submitting the findings of its work and taking steps related to the detainee exchange deal scheduled for July.
Informed sources indicated that initial examinations revealed suspected signs of direct assault, reinforcing theories that Qahtan was subjected to physical liquidation, rather than dying from an airstrike as suggested by some circulating accounts.
The final results, however, are contingent upon the completion of technical examinations and medical analyses, which will precisely determine the cause of death and the surrounding circumstances. Mohammed Qahtan's son stated that while the family completed the procedures for examining the body presented by the Houthis at Kuwait Hospital in Sana'a, they remain skeptical about the circumstances of death and the identity of the presented body. He explained that the body shown to the family was only the lower part of the body, with the upper part, including the head, missing. The Houthi group attributed this to an airstrike, which did not alleviate the family's doubts.
He added that four samples were taken from the body and distributed among the ICRC, the Yemeni government, the Houthi group, and Qahtan's family for necessary tests to verify identity and the circumstances of death. The family reported facing pressure to sign the examination report, emphasizing that they still perceive "ambiguities" in the case and do not rule out the possibility of their father being liquidated or evidence of his death being deliberately obscured.
Mohammed Qahtan is a prominent political figure in the Yemeni Islah Party. He was arrested by the Houthis in April 2015 from his home in Sana'a. His fate has remained unknown since then, despite repeated local and international demands for his status to be revealed and for his release. The UN Security Council had previously called on the Houthi group to disclose Qahtan's fate and secure his release, but the group consistently refused to comply with international demands, keeping his case unresolved for years.
The examination of the body was part of the detainee exchange agreement signed between the Yemeni government and the Houthis in Amman, Jordan, in May. The agreement mandated the formation of a joint committee to investigate Qahtan's fate with the participation of his family and the ICRC as a neutral mediator. This exchange deal, considered the largest in years, includes the Houthi release of several detainees, including seven Saudis and 20 Sudanese from the Arab Coalition forces, as part of a list comprising approximately 1,700 detainees from both sides.
