Houthi rebels have continued committing crimes against the Yemeni people since they seized power in 2015. Their latest crime was issuing death sentences against 17 Yemenis, prompting strong international condemnation from government officials and human rights organizations.
The group also sentenced three other Yemenis — a woman and two men — to prison terms ranging from three to 10 years in trials described as a “sham” and based primarily on confessions extracted under torture, according to human rights groups.
Local and international human rights organizations maintain that the Houthi-controlled Specialized Criminal Court in Sanaa, which issued the death sentences, has no legal jurisdiction as its authority was transferred to Marib Governorate in a decision by the Yemeni Supreme Judicial Council in 2018.
This renders all of the court’s rulings null and void under Yemeni law. The U.S. Mission to Yemen condemned the death sentences in a statement, describing the trials as invalid and sentences as arbitrary because they were based on confessions extracted under duress.
The statement adds that “these sham trials and unjust convictions highlight once more that the Houthis can only rule by fear and intimidation.” The embassy demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all employees of the United Nations, nongovernmental organizations and diplomatic missions detained by the Houthis.
For the past several years, the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have detained dozens in a crackdown focused on U.N. employees and others working for international aid groups and foreign embassies. Houthis alleged that detainees were spies but provided no evidence. The U.N. categorically denies the accusations.
The Houthis’ crimes have not been limited to subjugating the Yemeni people within Yemen but have extended beyond borders to includes attacks on commercial ships and warships passing through international waterways in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea.
The continued Houthi shelling of villages and townships under the control of the legitimate government has killed many innocent people whose only crime was living in areas resisting Houthi control.
Yemen remains one of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis zones with about 14% of the population being internally displaced. Millions of Yemenis live in conditions close to famine.