On the legislative level, while the Yemeni Constitution does prohibit torture80, it does not comprehensively define torture and does not comply with the international standards of the definition of torture as stipulated, for instance, by the Convention against Torture. The Committee against Torture, in its recent concluding observations concerning Yemen’s second periodic report submitted to it during its 43rd session in 2009, reiterated with concern that the current definition in the Constitution prohibits torture only as a “means of coercing a confession during arrest, investigation, detention and imprisonment, and the punishment is limited to individuals who order or carry torture and does not extend to individuals who are otherwise complicit in such acts.”81
Moreover, while the Yemeni Constitution provides that crimes involving physical or psychological torture should be punished, other Yemeni legislation, such as Article 26 of the Criminal Procedure Law No. 13 of 199482, provides that criminal lawsuits may not be filled against a law enforcement officer or a public employee for any crime committed while carrying out his job except with the permission of the Attorney General.
In addition, there are inconsistencies in Yemen’s domestic law with regard to the statute of limitations concerning crimes involving physical and psychological torture. While the Constitution does not provide for any such limitations, other laws, including the above mentioned Criminal Procedure Law No. 13 of 1994, include such a statute of limitations.83
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