Human Rights Organization: Houthi Court Issues Death Sentence Against Police Officer, Six Soldiers in Sana’a in Revenge for Killing of Militia Leader

A human rights organization said that the Sana’a Court of Appeal, under Houthi control, issued a death sentence on September 4 against the director of the “Dhila’ Shamlan” police station in Sana’a, Colonel Yahya Hazam Al-Jaifi, and six members of the station, in retaliation for the killing of a Houthi leader who was killed in a clash while trying to storm the station in mid-2020.

The Geneva-based SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties explained that Al-Jayfi and his members were subjected to a sham trial in which legal principles and fair trial procedures were not observed, “in an incident that confirms that the judiciary has become a flexible tool for implementing the group’s agenda of eliminating opponents and adversaries, and a means of strengthening and protecting its own security at the expense of public peace.”

She added, quoting human rights sources, that "the victims were subjected to a formal trial that did not include any legal procedures and lacked the principles of a fair and impartial trial, which reflects the state of collapse and corruption that is eating away at the judicial system subject to the dictates of the group."

She pointed out that the militia accused those convicted of being affiliated with the former regime, an accusation that the organization said the group "attaches to others who do not adopt its ideas or criticize its policies."

SAM indicated that on June 17, 2020, Al-Jaifi and his companions had confronted an armed storming operation carried out by the Houthi leader "Lutf Ziad", nicknamed "Abu Ayoub", on the "Dhila Shamlan" police station, in order to release prisoners accused of a murder case. During the clash, the Houthi leader Abu Ayoub was killed, as well as an officer and the prisoner officer in the station, and others were injured.

SAM Organization called on the Houthi militia to immediately release Al-Jayfi and his companions unconditionally, and to cancel the death sentences issued against them, and demanded that it stop using the judiciary as a tool for political repression and settling scores against its opponents.