UAE-backed militias have kidnapped one of the sheikhs and dignitaries of the Socotra Island, human rights sources reported on Thursday.
The sources said that the so-called “development committee” of the Emirati Khalifa Foundation in Qalansiya and Abdul-Kuri district ordered the arrest of Sheikh Hassan Al-Qaisi after he refused certain tasks ordered out by the foundation on the island.
During the past hours, members of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) militia, which is funded by the UAE took Al-Qaisi to one of its secret prisons on the island, according to the sources.
The latest development comes after the UAE established watchtowers in several populated areas of Socotra and the heights overlooking the coast of the island, and provided them with advanced digital spy cameras that extend more than four kilometers.
