Hungarian man kidnapped and killed in Yemen

Twitter - @Adelalhasanii

Members of the militia of South Yemen kidnapped a Hungarian citizen back in April.

Even though the Hungarian passport is one of the most powerful globally and allows you to enter over 180 countries, one should think twice before travelling to certain places. For instance, to Yemen.

According to an activist from Yemen, the 43-year-old Hungarian man, whose full name is not known but is nicknamed “Kimo”, decided to convert to Islam and was visiting the country. He even changed his name to Abdul Hakim Faris.

The activist and blogger Adel Al-Husseini reported on the man’s case on Twitter. The first time he posted towards the end of April was about the alleged kidnap of “Kimo”. According to Adel,

the Hungarian citizen was captured in the city of Aden in the South of the country by soldiers of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), which is known to be supported by the United Arab Emirates.

They wanted to force him to help them get a ransom in exchange for his release. “Kimo”, however, denied to do so, which led to his death, writes orientalista.hu.

To all friends in Hungary:
There is a Hungarian citizen named “Kimo” who is 43 years old. He was imprisoned in Waddah Hall Prison of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council. He was tortured until he died about a month ago. Some prisoners who have been released told me.. pic.twitter.com/CSgjBYRESx
— عادل الحسني (@Adelalhasanii) April 29, 2021

On May 8, Adel posted again, but this time to report the sad news on how the man was imprisoned and tortured to death in April. He said his sources were prisoners released from the same prison where “Kimo” was held captive. He directed his message towards the Yemeni Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of Yemen in Hungary and the Committee of Experts in the Security Council. He even posted a picture of the man.
Apart from directing his Twitter message towards the mentioned organisations, he officially notified them of the incident.

Due to the ongoing military conflicts and operations in Yemen since 2015, there are currently several governments in effect and working at once. Nevertheless, only Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi is officially recognised by European countries as the President of Yemen and his office as the official government. He has been the President since 2012, but with the armed takeover of Houthis in 2015, he is currently operating his office from Saudi Arabia. Officially, none of the western states nor Hungary have any kind of diplomatic relations with the two other governments operating in Yemen. Namely, the Southern Separatist movement (or known only as al-Hirak) and the Houthis, who seized control of the Northern Yemeni government and dissolved the parliament to establish their own councils rule.