Amnesty International Calls on Houthis to Drop Death Sentence Against Activist Al-Arwali and Release Her Immediately
Yemen Monitor/Newsroom
Amnesty International renewed its call on Wednesday for the Houthi armed group to drop the “unjust” death sentence issued against Yemeni activist Fatima Al-Arwali and release her immediately.
In a brief statement posted on its X account, the organization said, “The Houthi de facto authorities must quash the conviction and death sentence of Fatima Al-Arwali , guarantee her a fair retrial without recourse to the death penalty, or else she must be immediately released and all charges against her dropped.”
The statement added that Al-Arwali remains at risk of execution after being sentenced to death by the so-called Specialized Criminal Court controlled by the Houthis in Sana’a on December 5, 2023, following a “grossly unfair trial.”
The organization pointed out that Al-Arwali , who has been detained by the Houthis for two years, has been subjected in her detention to a “series of human rights violations, including enforced disappearance and solitary confinement, under conditions that violate the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment.”
The Houthi group arrested Al-Arwali at a checkpoint in Taiz governorate on August 13, 2022. She was forcibly disappeared for nearly eight months, and her family searched for her in every police station and prison in Sana’a. They later learned informally that she had been held incommunicado in the Security and Intelligence detention center in Sana’a after her arrest.
Al-Arwali was the former head of the Yemen office of the Arab Women Leaders Union affiliated with the League of Arab States and was an activist in promoting women’s rights.
On July 31, 2023, the public prosecution accused Al-Arwali of assisting the “Emirati aggression” and providing coordinates to reveal the locations of Houthi forces and “popular committees,” a charge punishable by death, and her case was referred to the Specialized Criminal Court.
Since 2015, Amnesty International has documented cases of more than 60 people who appeared before the Specialized Criminal Court in Sana’a, including journalists, human rights defenders, political opponents, and members of religious minorities who have been subjected to unfair trials based on false charges or charges fabricated by this court. Almost all of them were tried on charges of espionage, which is punishable by death under Yemeni law.
The organization says that based on interviews with her lawyer, Al-Arwali was not granted the basic rights of due process in the pre-trial proceedings. He said he was unable to visit her even once during her detention.
