A human rights network condemns the Houthi execution orders against dozens of kidnapped people and calls for international pressure to stop them

On Sunday, a Yemeni human rights network condemned the continuation of the courts under the control of the terrorist Houthi militia in Sanaa, issuing execution orders of a retaliatory nature for dozens of kidnapped people, calling for widespread international and human rights pressure to stop them and save the kidnapped people from the guillotine of death.

The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said in a statement that it condemns the Houthi militia issuing a death sentence against (70) kidnapped Yemeni citizens, including (3) university professors and (12) teachers and educators, through what it calls the judicial trials it follows.

The network described these rulings issued by the Specialized Criminal Court in Sanaa as “unjust and inconsistent with the principles of justice and human rights in a crime that is added to the series of Houthi militia crimes against prisoners and abductees,” and said that they were issued by an illegitimate court, and does not have any legal authority to issue such rulings. .

The network explained that it received a report from relatives of the detainees stating that their children were subjected to various types of physical and psychological torture. They also remained forcibly hidden in solitary confinement cells for nine full months, while their lawyers were prevented from fully reviewing the file, which affected the progress of the case.

She pointed out that these rulings come in the context of the Houthi terrorist militia’s continued use of the judiciary as a tool to suppress those who oppose it and those who reject its criminal practices and settle accounts with its political opponents... and turn the judiciary into a heavy stick, rather a sword drawn over the necks of Yemenis, to issue terrorist rulings against them that reveal its true, ugly face. Stained with the blood of innocents.

The statement pointed out that since its control of the capital, Sanaa, and its coup against the state in September 2014, the Houthi militia has worked to take revenge on its political opponents, under various banners and names, until Yemen witnessed the worst violations of human rights and the rights of victims in light of suspicious international silence.

The network noted that the Houthi militia had issued hundreds of death sentences against its political opponents and civilians, and the biggest crime carried out by the Houthi militia against the kidnapped was its execution of 9 of the people of Tihama in the middle of Tahrir Square in the capital, Sanaa, in mid-September 2021 AD, in one of the most heinous crimes. The Houthis committed crimes against Yemeni civilians in cold blood.

The network stressed that the Houthi execution crimes constitute a serious violation of the rules of international humanitarian law and international agreements such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Rome Statute forming the International Criminal Court, the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Rules, and other agreements that criminalize any attack or threat to the lives of individuals. .

The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms called on the United Nations and human rights organizations to intervene urgently and put pressure to stop the unjust sentences against the abductees who were sentenced to death or prison sentences, and to work to end their suffering and release them unconditionally.

It also renewed its call on the United Nations organizations and the international community to intervene urgently to save the detainees from the guillotine of death imposed by the Houthi group on their necks, by exerting international pressure to cancel these rulings, prevent them from being implemented, and stop the expansion of the issuance of rulings that resemble political revenge issued by the Specialized Criminal Court in Sana’a. (Death Court) as it is called in the legal community.