Yemeni Rights Network Condemns Houthi Death Sentences Against 70 Civilians, Including University Professors
Yemen Monitor/Newsroom
The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms condemned on Sunday the issuance of death sentences by the Houthi group against 70 Yemeni citizens, including university professors and educators.
In a statement, the network condemned the issuance of death sentences by the Houthi militia against 70 Yemeni citizens, including 3 university professors and 12 teachers, through what it calls judicial trials.
The network expressed its strong condemnation and utter denunciation of these unjust verdicts that contradict the principles of justice and human rights.
It added: This is in addition to a series of crimes committed by the armed group against prisoners and abductees
The network stated that the Specialized Criminal Court in Sana’a is illegitimate and has no legal authority to issue such verdicts.
It confirmed that it had received reports from the families of the detainees indicating that the detainees had been subjected to various forms of physical and psychological torture, and had been forcibly disappeared in solitary confinement for nine months, and their lawyers had been prevented from reviewing their case files in full, which affected the course of the trial.
The network explained that the Houthi group continues to use the judiciary as a tool to suppress its opponents and reject its criminal practices against civilians in areas under its control.
It clarified that the group uses all criminal and terrorist means to silence free civil voices and subjugate them, adding: The Houthi militia has transformed the judiciary since its coup into a heavy stick and a sword hanging over the necks of Yemenis, issuing terrorist verdicts that reveal its ugly true face stained with the blood of the innocent over the years of the coup.
The organization’s statement accused the armed group of using the judiciary as a tool to settle scores with its political opponents, and issued death sentences against hundreds of them, including senior officials in the legitimate government, journalists, and dozens of activists and women.
Since seizing the capital Sanaa and launching its coup in September 2014, the Houthi militia has retaliated against its political opponents under various pretexts, leading Yemen to witness the worst human rights abuses amid a suspicious international silence.
