Deaths and unfair trials... Human Rights Watch calls for urgent international intervention to rescue abductees in Houthi prisons in Yemen

Human Rights Watch called on Thursday for urgent international intervention to rescue the abductees in the prisons of the Houthi militia in Yemen, after the death of a number of abductees, the issuance of death sentences against dozens, and the referral of others to trial after they were accused of crimes punishable by death.

The organization said in a statement that since mid-October, the Houthi authorities in Yemen have handed over the cases of at least 12 people, including former employees of the US embassy and the United Nations, to the “Specialized Criminal Prosecution,” accusing some of them of crimes punishable by death, while depriving them of due process.

“Since May 31, Houthi authorities have arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared dozens of UN and civil society staff, and informed sources told Human Rights Watch that the number of detainees is rising,” she added.

The organization said that since June 10, the Houthi authorities have been publishing a series of videos and preparing posts on social media platforms showing 10 Yemeni men, some of whom are now among the 12 under investigation, confessing to spying for the United Nations and Israel.

Human Rights Watch suggested that the confessions were likely extracted under torture, as it had previously documented the Houthis’ use of torture to obtain confessions, stressing that “publishing videos of confessions undermines the right to a fair trial and lacks credibility.”

The organization said that three prominent detainees died while being held in Houthi prisons since the fall of 2023 (Mohammed Khamash, Sabri al-Hakimi, and Hisham al-Hakimi). Khamash and Sabri al-Hakimi were senior officials in the Ministry of Education, while Hisham al-Hakimi was an employee of the Save the Children organization.

On October 22, the Houthis contacted Khamash’s family to collect his body. The cause of death is unknown. Khamash had been arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared since June, with no access to his family or lawyer.

“The Houthis have long shown their disdain for due process and basic protections for defendants since they took over Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and the situation has only worsened in recent months,” said Niko Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“The deaths of detainees held by the Houthis should alert the international community and prompt it to take immediate action to ensure that hundreds of others arbitrarily detained by the Houthis do not suffer a similar end,” she added.

Human Rights Watch spoke to three people, including two UN officials, with knowledge of the criminal cases, who said the 12 people — former US embassy employees and UN staff who were arrested between 2021 and 2023 — were referred for investigation by the Houthi-run Specialized Criminal Prosecution.

“In mid-October, the men’s cases were transferred from the Houthi investigation unit to the prosecution unit. According to a UN official, some were questioned and investigated as part of the transfer procedures without a lawyer present,” she added.

She continued: “A UN official told Human Rights Watch that some of them were not given any access to lawyers throughout their detention. Although the Houthis told the families of some detainees that they could appoint lawyers for their relatives.

“Even in cases where families appointed a lawyer, the Houthis did not allow lawyers to attend the interrogation,” said a lawyer familiar with the cases.

In this context, the organization said that it reviewed documents in which the families of some detainees requested from the specialized criminal prosecution to allow them to visit their detained relatives. However, despite written instructions from the prosecution to the Houthi “Security and Intelligence Service,” which is the authority responsible for detention centers, which orders the facilitation of these visits, the families of these detainees and their lawyers were not allowed to meet or communicate with the detainees.

“In the arrests of UN and civil society officials in recent months, the Houthis did not present search or arrest warrants during the arrests. The authorities refused to inform families of the whereabouts of detainees, meaning that these actions amount to enforced disappearance. They held many detainees incommunicado, without giving them the opportunity to communicate with their lawyers or families,” the organization added.

She pointed out that the Houthis have repeatedly arrested people who criticize their policies on flimsy charges, while the Houthis have significantly increased their use of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and issuing death sentences in recent months.

“Over the past year, the frequency of death sentences handed down by Houthi courts has increased,” she said. “This includes an unfair mass trial in January in which a Houthi court sentenced 32 men to prison and nine to death on dubious charges.

The organization recalled what Mohammed Al-Shuwaiter, a Yemeni lawyer and executive director of the “Qanoon” human rights platform, wrote on October 16 regarding the recent amendments made by the Houthis to their judiciary.

Al-Shuwaiter said, “Some of these amendments to the judicial system constitute a direct attack on the independence of the judiciary and open the way for the exploitation of the judiciary – especially the criminal court – to settle political scores, suppress opponents, and seize their property through sham trials.”

Human Rights Watch noted that it had previously documented systematic abuses in Houthi prisons, and the UN Security Council Panel of Experts on Yemen concluded in a report published in 2023 that “prisoners held by the Houthis are subjected to systematic psychological and physical torture, including denial of medical intervention to treat injuries resulting from torture, which has led to some prisoners suffering permanent disabilities and death.”

“These cases highlight the grave risks faced by dozens, if not hundreds, of people still arbitrarily detained in Houthi prisons,” said the organization’s Yemen and Bahrain researcher, calling on the Houthis to immediately end their use of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance and improve prison conditions.

Jafarnia called on influential countries to take action to ensure that no more people die in Houthi detention.