Executions in Yemen... Iranian rulings at the hands of the Houthis
English - Monday 02 January 2023 الساعة 08:44 am
Sana', NewsYemen, exclusive:
From time to time, the Houthi militia - Iran's arm in Yemen, issues unfair sentences against abductees and detainees it has held for years, after filing fabricated charges against them in order to justify the systematic liquidation of civilians and opponents of their policy.
In just two weeks, the Specialized Criminal Court affiliated with the Houthis in Sana'a issued death sentences for about 19 abductees who had been held there for years. The first verdict was on December 18, 2022, affecting 16 residents of Saada governorate, and on the 31st of the same month, the court issued a death sentence for 3 educators from Al-Mahweet.
The convicts have been held in Houthi prisons for years, and they have been charged with espionage for the Arab coalition countries, and treason during their mock trials.
Despite the local, regional and international condemnation of the unjust Houthi rulings, the Houthi militias defied everyone and continued to exploit their control over the judiciary to issue death sentences with the aim of settling scores with their own.
Wholesale executions and international condonation
Human rights reports documented the issuance of more than 300 death sentences by courts under the control of the Houthi militia in Sana'a and other Yemeni governorates under its control. Most of these rulings are of a political nature and were handed down in trials that lack the minimum standards and guarantees of fair trials.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said, in a statement, that the Houthi group, since its takeover of Sana'a, has issued about 350 death sentences against politicians, opposition activists, journalists and military personnel, and carried out at least 11 of them.
Irada Organization against Torture and Enforced Disappearance denounced the new rulings against educators from Al-Mahwit Governorate, stressing that the three convicts work as teachers in the educational field and do not have any military activity. All of them were kidnapped from the roads without any legal justification.
For its part, the local authority in Al-Mahweet governorate - loyal to the legitimate government - called for a quick move to protect citizens and detainees held by the Houthi militia from the systematic liquidation operations. In a statement issued by it, it explained that the Houthi militia subjected the abductees to a mock trial, the results of which are known in advance, and lacked all proper litigation procedures, after seven years of disappearance and torture to force them to accept any action taken by the militia against them, even if it means going to the guillotine.
She stressed that the issuance of death warrants is completely inconsistent with the peace trends that the UN envoy Hans Grundberg and the international community are pressing towards.. considering that it is illogical to go to peace with the aim of stopping the Yemeni bloodshed, while the Houthi goes to spill the blood of the Yemenis by issuing mass execution orders.
The local authority in Al-Mahweet called on the United Nations and the international community to carry out their responsibilities guaranteed by international resolutions and United Nations charters in protecting the Yemeni people from the terrorism of the Houthi militia, which defies the will of the international and regional community and the world at large.
Iranian rulings in the hands of the Houthis
After the Iranian-backed militias invaded Sana'a, they rushed to impose their control over state institutions in Sana'a, especially the judicial authorities and the judiciary.
These militias worked to empty the judiciary of qualified cadres, and to keep their supporters in order to pass cases and issue unfair rulings against their opponents. And it established what it calls the "Supreme Justice System," which is headed by the prominent leader of the group, Muhammad Ali al-Houthi.
The huge number of Houthi death sentences against its opponents has proven that this option has become a major one against all its opponents and opponents of its destructive sectarian project in Yemen. This is the same option that the Iranian regime uses against its opponents, with the aim of intimidating citizens and subjugating them to their authority.
Pictures of Iranian citizens hanging from cranes in public squares in Tehran and Iranian cities are still stuck in the minds of Iranians and the whole world. And revealed the truth about the criminal face that the Iranian regime hides. On the other hand, the picture of the execution of the people of Hodeidah, who were fabricated on charges of participating in the killing of the prominent Houthi leader, Saleh Al-Samad, is still present and reflects the extent of Houthi criminality against the people of Yemen.
The rulings issued by the Houthis are an extension of the acts of killing and terror that they have practiced against Yemenis since their inception in their stronghold, Maran, Saada Governorate, in northern Yemen. During the years of their coup against power, these militias arrested thousands of activists, politicians, academics, students, and women, imprisoned them, and subjected them to illegal and inhumane interrogations, in addition to acts of torture that affected them and caused the death of some of them.
The Yemeni Minister of Information, Muammar Al-Eryani, likened the practices of the Houthi judiciary to what is happening in Iran. He pointed out that "orders to kill on fabricated charges, following sham trials in illegal courts, are a reproduction of the practices of the mullahs' regime in Tehran, which continues its campaign of repression and abuse, issuing and carrying out death sentences against young men, girls and children of Iran who rose up in all Iranian provinces to demand their natural right to freedom and dignity." ".
The fabrication of scandalous charges
During the past years, the Houthi militia has brought thousands of detainees and abductees to its courts, after fabricating malicious charges against them, perhaps the most prominent of which are charges of treason, collaborating, and espionage for the Arab coalition countries and the Yemeni government. Where the detainees are forced to confess the charges in order to escape the brutal torture that continues day and night, and they are subjected to trial sessions that do not meet the minimum standards of fairness. And those sham trials, in which detainees are prevented from even defending themselves, end with death sentences or long years of imprisonment.
What was published by the prominent parliamentarian, Abdo Bishr, summed up much of what is going on in those courts in simple words. Where he revealed that the Houthi militia continues its behavior in fabricating charges against its opponents, bringing them to courts, and issuing unjust decisions against them.
Bishr pointed out that the behavior practiced by the Houthi group against its opponents is unacceptable. Especially since the group is trying to suppress every opposition voice that criticizes its corruption through fabricated charges against it.
He added: "Kidnapping media professionals and others and accusing them of collusion and treason because of their criticism of corruption, corruptors and oppressors. This nonsense is outdated. Citizens know who the agents and traitors are, who enjoy people's suffering and starvation, and traffickers in the issues of the country and the citizen. If you want correction, hide the skin of the corrupt and unjust, not the other way around."
Public and legal indignation
Although the militias are still evading official comments about their rulings, angry and condemning reactions continue to express popular and human rights discontent with the new Houthi death sentences issued against 16 detainees from Saada governorate.
Yemenis launched a massive pressure campaign on social media to express their rejection of these wholesale executions. While the Yemeni government and human rights organizations considered the execution orders "mass liquidation in the Iranian regime's approach."
More than 42 human rights organizations issued a joint statement condemning the death sentences issued by the Houthi militia. Stressing that these provisions constitute a serious violation of the right to life and physical integrity, as the trials lack the minimum conditions for a fair trial, in which all the rights of the defense were wasted.
The organizations explained that the rulings were issued by courts that lacked their legitimacy, amid the absence of the authority of the judges who issued these rulings. And that the legal procedures in those trials are no longer acceptable and are only a cover for issuing selective political rulings.
She emphasized that the Specialized Criminal Court in Sana'a is no longer a place for judicial justice, but rather a tool of the political and military conflict. The organizations called on the Houthi group to immediately and unconditionally release all detainees and cancel the political rulings against them, warning against continuing to tamper with the lives of Yemenis and waste their blood under any name.
It called on the United Nations organizations and the international community to intervene urgently to save the detainees from the guillotine of death imposed by the Houthi group on their necks by exerting international pressure to cancel these provisions.
Court rulings to prevent their release
The frightening escalation of death sentences issued by the Houthi courts against those who reject and oppose the Houthi extremist ideas and reactionary practices confirms that the Houthis are supervising mass liquidations of their political opponents to prevent an attempt to release them as part of the prisoner exchanges that take place from time to time under the auspices of the United Nations.
Yemeni human rights sources said that the Houthi militia's continued issuance of court rulings against those abducted for years is part of a criminal scheme aimed at obstructing their release in any upcoming negotiations, claiming that they have sentences and penalties.
The sources explained to "NewsYemen": that many of those sentenced to death, imprisonment for long years, and the payment of large sums of money, are kidnapped and detained by militias for years, and no legal action has been brought against them. The return of talking about the file of prisoners during the past days and the release of the abductees and detainees under the principle of all for all prompted the militias to expedite the conduct of trial sessions and the issuance of wholesale sentences in anticipation of any upcoming agreements in this file.
What the Houthi militia is practicing in the judicial institutions is the demolition of the last remaining fortresses of the Yemeni citizen in light of a war in which the Yemeni lost his human dignity and basic rights, and the international community must intervene immediately to protect the citizen whose life has become threatened with direct death.
Remember the Houthi massacre against the people of Hodeidah
And the issuance of the recent death sentences brought to mind the "Houthi massacre" carried out by the militias against nine innocent people of Tihama, including a minor, in cold blood, in a public square in Sana'a in 2021, as well as the scene of its members dancing over their corpses, which reflected the level of criminality of the militias and their stripping them of all human and moral values and considerations. And its disregard for the blood and souls of Yemenis.
Houthi terrorism through death sentences is considered by the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms as war crimes that do not fall under the statute of limitations, especially as they are carried out in public squares in order to terrorize civilians and force them to submit to them. The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms held the Houthi militia legally responsible for the lives of the abductees.
Yemeni Information Minister Muammar al-Eryani stressed that the international community, the United Nations and human rights organizations, led by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, are required to play their role in confronting acts of killing and organized terrorism practiced by militias against civilians. He also called for prosecuting and holding accountable the leaders and militiamen involved in it, and ensuring that they do not go unpunished.
