Yemen Monitor/Newsroom
On Tuesday, a Yemeni rights network accused the armed Houthi group of using the judiciary in areas under its control as a tool to repress and intimidate Yemenis who oppose them.
The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms condemned “the death sentences issued by the Houthi group last Saturday against 44 civilians with a vengeful character, and issued by an illegal court; calling on the international community and concerned human rights organizations to intervene urgently and pressure the Houthis to stop implementing them.”
The network described the rulings as “unfair” and in violation of the principles of justice and human rights, in a crime that adds to the series of crimes of the Houthi group against prisoners and abductees.
It pointed out that it received a report from relatives of the detainees stating that they were subjected to “various forms of physical and psychological torture, and they remained forcibly disappeared in solitary cells for nine full months, while their lawyers were prevented from fully reviewing the file, which affected the course of the proceedings.”
It confirmed that the specialized criminal court in Sana’a is an illegal court and does not have any legal authority to issue such sentences.
It explained that the Houthi group continues to use the judiciary as a tool to repress those who oppose it and reject its criminal practices against civilians in areas under its control. It seeks by all criminal and terrorist means to silence free civil voices and subject them.
It continued: “Since its coup, the Houthi group has turned the judiciary into a thick stick, even the sword raised over the necks of Yemenis to issue terrorist sentences against them that reveal its true ugly face stained with the blood of innocents.”
It added: “During the years of the coup, the Houthi group used the judiciary as a tool to settle accounts with its political opponents, and issued death sentences against hundreds of them, including senior leaders in the legitimate authorities, journalists, and dozens of activists and women,” noting that the group issued more than (400) death sentences against its political opponents and civilians.
The rights network called on the United Nations and human rights organizations to intervene urgently and pressure to stop the unfair sentences against the detainees who have been sentenced to death or imprisonment, and to work to end their suffering and release them unconditionally.
It renewed its call for UN organizations and the international community to intervene urgently to save the detainees from the guillotine that the Houthi group holds over their necks by exerting international pressure to cancel those sentences and prevent their implementation (..)”.
