Hisham goes out every morning, heading to hospitals near his home in the Egyptian capital - Cairo, in order to receive treatment for the pain he suffers in his neck.

Hisham Tarmum and five of his fellow journalists had escaped from the Yemeni city of Marib after spending five and a half years in Houthi prisons.

The Houthi forces arrested the six Egyptians, along with ten others, in the summer of 2015, and then they were tried on charges of spying for the enemy and spreading malicious news, coinciding with the start of the military operation of Al-Hazm Storm, led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Yemen.

BBC News Arabic met in Cairo with four of the six journalists: Hisham al-Yousifi, Haitham al-Shehab, Hisham Tarmum and Essam Balghayth. The four journalists talked about the circumstances of their arrest, the reality of the press today in Yemen and the fate of their other four colleagues who are still in prison and who are under sentence of death by firing squad.

Haitham al-Shehab says, “We were working to cover the news of the situation in Yemen after most of the journalists left, fearing the oppression of the Houthis, who seized the capital in September 2014.

However, on the twenty-sixth of March 2015, the Houthi militias began chasing media professionals and journalists, with the start of the Arab Alliance forces led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to bomb the capital.

Al-Shehab adds that due to the interruption of internet and electricity due to the bombing, he and his nine colleagues resorted to a hotel in the capital, Sana'a, to work until they were arrested.

Al-Shehab believes that their arrest came as a result of the Houthis' desire to "obscure what is happening in the capital, Sanaa, after taking control of it."

The ten journalists were referred to trial and faced charges including "spreading malicious news that disturbs the public peace and serenity and working for the enemy," according to the list of charges they all denied.

While the six journalists were released in October, their other four colleagues on death row are: Abd al-Khaliq Omran, Akram al-Walidi, Harith Hamid and Tawfiq al-Mansouri still face an unknown fate.

 

Inside the prison:

Essam Balghith made reference to that he receives psychological support and medical care in Cairo.

During their imprisonment, Balghith indicated that he and his companions had moved between six prisons, the worst of which, they said, was the Political Security prison, or what is now known as the Security and Intelligence Agency.

Balghith says, "We were subjected to ill-treatment in all of these prisons and were subjected to torture, deprivation of food and making us think they were going to physically liquidate us."

Balghith added, "Our arrest and trial was aimed at sending a threatening message to suppress the other journalists and prevent them from performing their duty.

We heard that there was Houthi security wanted list of about 100 journalists, most of whom fled outside the country.

In March 2015, the Committee to Protect Journalists expressed concern about the safety of Yemeni journalists amid escalating violence in the country. At the time, the Committee stated that "Houthi forces raided media websites, detained journalists, and blocked other news websites."

Balghith says, "We went on a hunger strike for 43 days in protest of our detention and were on the verge of death, but that did not stop them from continuing to imprison us, and they even transferred us to solitary cells as punishment for our hunger strike."

More dangerous than traitors and mercenaries:

For his part, al-Yousifi refers to the atmosphere of incitement that prevailed at that period and that led to their imprisonment, saying, "In his famous speech delivered in September 2015, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi - the leader of the Houthi militia - said that among the media class there are those who are more dangerous to this country than traitors and the security mercenaries.

And his colleague Balghith adds: "We always received threats inside the prison, the Houthis were telling us that we would meet the same fate of Abdullah Qabel and Al-Ayzari."

The organization of Reporters Without Borders had held the Houthi militia responsible for the killing of the two journalists, Abdullah Qabel, the correspondent of Yemen Shabab Channel and Belqis Channel, and Youssef Al-Ayzari, the correspondent of Suhail Channel, after they were detained by the Houthi militia and put them in a weapons store, which in turn was bombed by Arab Alliance forces in the Dhamar governorate southern the country in 2015.

 

The Deal of getting out from Prison:

Despite their acquittal by the criminal court of the Houthi militia in Sana’a in April 2020, the six journalists were not released from prison until October of the same year, within a prisoner exchange deal between the legitimate government and the Houthis, under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations, which included the exchange of more than a thousand prisoners between the two sides.

The four journalists say they were flown to Seiyun Airport in Hadhramawt within the deal.

They also assert that they had to sign official papers not to practice journalism again in exchange for their release.

Appeals for the release of their colleagues:

The released journalists appealed to the United Nations to intervene for the release of their four colleagues.

In a letter sent by the journalists to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres and his special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, the journalists said, “We are writing this letter to you at a time when we go every day to hospitals and medical clinics in Egypt to receive treatment for what happened to us during the period of the abduction, at a time when the Houthis continue to abduct and prosecute four of our fellow journalists.

The journalists pointed out that their colleagues' health deteriorated due to what they called "the torture they are still subjected to in light of the deliberate neglect of health care by the Houthis."

For his part, Hisham Tarmum warned that Harith Hamid is about to lose his sight in his prison cell, after he was denied his medical glasses, according to him.

The four journalists assert that their fate has become unknown, where they cannot return to their home country for fear of being killed by the Houthi group, and at the same time they do not like stability in Egypt, where they have neither jobs nor salaries, and they blame the Yemeni government for its shortcomings against them and their relatives who left behind in Yemen.

Under these difficult circumstances, journalists are studying the idea of political asylum in a European country after being stranded in Cairo.