Yemen Monitor/Sana’a/Exclusive:
A rights organization said on Monday that the Houthis have referred more than 100 people to the specialized criminal court on political charges.
This comes as part of an escalating campaign of arrests in areas under the control of the armed group that has been going on for weeks, targeting civil society workers and former government officials on charges of espionage and links to an intelligence cell that was announced last month.
The De Yemen Organization for Rights and Development said in a statement, “We condemn the Ansar Allah Houthi group for referring more than 100 citizens from the capital Sana’a (in one batch) to the specialized criminal court in the capital (which lacks jurisdiction) to try them on fabricated charges and political motives.”
The organization considered that “these collective crimes, systematic violations and illegal trials confirm the Houthis’ continued use of (illegitimate) judicial institutions under their control to suppress their opponents and plunder their money and property in violation of the provisions of the constitution, law and international agreements that Yemen has ratified and committed to.”
The organization called on the UN envoy to Yemen, international organizations and civil society organizations to “condemn these systematic crimes, hold the perpetrators and those responsible accountable, and protect and redress the victims.”
The organization did not specify the exact nature of the charges. The group had published confessions in June of former employees of international organizations and former workers in Western embassies who were accused of working for US and Israeli intelligence, with most of the charges related to their development and relief work or diplomatic activities.
The Houthis had already launched a campaign in May targeting loyalists of the General People’s Congress party in an attempt to tighten the noose on its leadership allied with them in Sana’a, and amid fears of links between party members and “Ammar Saleh”, the security commander who works as an advisor to the United Arab Emirates, and his brother “Tareq Saleh”, a member of the Presidential Leadership Council who leads a force supported by Abu Dhabi on the west coast of the country.
