Muhammad Ali al-Houthi.. From a plunderer of the state's seals to a plunderer of citizens' lands
English - Saturday 24 December 2022 الساعة 08:02 am
NewsYemen, written by/ Muhammad Yahya:
The sanctions experts' report classified him as a strong aspirant to control the entire group instead of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, and was described as the most dangerous to the life of the Iranian-backed militia leader.
After the Houthi coup against power in 2014, Muhammad Ali al-Houthi appeared, sitting in a boastful position in front of the Director of the Development Fund, and also deliberately pointing his gun at the face of the Conference Minister of Labor, while he was sitting in front of her.
Muhammad Ali al-Houthi does not have any biography other than his full name, "Muhammad Ali Abdul Karim Amir al-Din al-Houthi," as he did not obtain any academic degree, which made him a target for Yemenis' ridicule.
Muhammad Ali Al-Houthi took full advantage of the power of his appointment as head of the Revolutionary Committee in 2015, through which he began to carry out all his activities and manage his interests on a large scale from within the Republican Palace building, to the extent that the militia leader, Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, commented on that at the time, "I did not expect that the presidency of the Revolutionary Committee It means the presidency of the country!!
Those close to the Houthi group say that coincidences have served Muhammad al-Houthi, and that he is of no value to the group, as there is no real value for the Houthi group except for those who fought in the Saada wars, while Muhammad Ali was not part of the group's military or security work, and therefore mocks him The military leaders of the militia sometimes sit in their councils, and joke around many times.
Before the coup
In the late 1990s, Muhammad Ali al-Houthi joined the group of Hussein al-Houthi, "the spiritual father of the Houthis," which was known as the "Believing Youth" group and later the Ansar Allah group.
Muhammad al-Houthi traveled to Iran in 2002, to be trained there by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and when he returned, he was stopped and detained in Jordan for repeating the Iranian cry, before he was deported to Yemen in 2004, where he was arrested by the Political Security at Sana’a Airport, based on intelligence information about his role. As a link between Iran and the Houthis, a few months before the outbreak of the first war between the state and the Houthis, he was not released until after the six Saada wars stopped in 2009.
Muhammad al-Houthi did not have any significant political activity during the 2011 protests, except for his participation among the supervisors of the sit-in square in Sana'a and his participation in the demonstrations. He also did not participate in Saada in the group's wars. When the six Saada wars broke out, he was imprisoned in Sana'a.
plunderer of seals;
After the September 21, 2014 coup and the invasion of Sana'a, Muhammad al-Houthi was entrusted with the presidency of the Revolutionary Committee, and attributed to him control over the official seals of ministries and government institutions. Under his supervision, the coup group took control of the "Safer" company, the largest Yemeni oil company.
His role in extending and consolidating the Houthis' authority emerged on February 6, 2015, after he officially announced the coup and signed the so-called "constitutional declaration", which technically means that he became the de facto ruler of Yemen. And after the Republican Palace was the seat of the head of state, it became the seat of Muhammad al-Houthi, in charge of the group's military sector.
Muhammad al-Houthi was able to accumulate enormous wealth in a short period, and his donation in 2016 of one hundred million riyals raised his contribution to the establishment of the September 21 Medical College on the ruins of Hospital 48, which sparked controversy at the time about his wealth, which confirmed the facts as being levies, revenues, taxes and trafficking in everything Starting with his participation in the major traders in the oil derivatives market, which achieves great profits for the Houthi militia, all the way to other suspicious businesses.
influence struggle
On July 28, 2016, the influence of Muhammad Ali al-Houthi waned, and declined to a large extent, with the formation of the so-called "Political Council" and the appointment of the Houthi leader, Saleh al-Samad, as head of the council.
However, Muhammad al-Houthi continued to append his orders in the name of the head of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee, and this provoked Saleh al-Sammad, who came out with statements that the Revolutionary Committee returned to work in 2017, so that the conflict erupted between Muhammad al-Houthi and al-Sammad, and this was the reason for the assassination of the latter on April 19, 2018, and accusation The coalition assassinated him with an air strike in the city of Hodeidah.
After the killing of Al-Sammad, Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi wanted to resolve the conflict in his favor, so he appointed the director of his office, Mahdi Al-Mashat, as head of the Political Council, and Ahmed Hamed, who was close to him, as director of Al-Mashat's office.
The scale of the conflict between Muhammad Ali al-Houthi and his rivals from the group has evolved over the past years, so he resorted to establishing his own military, security and economic force, working in his name and carrying out his orders, without referring to the Houthi Political Council.
Land grabber
In September 2020, Muhammad al-Houthi established what he called the "justice system" without a republican decision, and his forces launched military campaigns with the aim of seizing citizens' lands, and thousands of hectares of fertile and vast agricultural lands were confiscated in Tihama alone, claiming that they belonged to the endowments.
In order to enhance its economic resources, it continued to develop its justice system by adding the Real Estate Settlement Authority, to control the real estate and construction sector, whose trading volume in Yemen is estimated at more than three billion dollars annually.
