After the evaporated promises made by the Houthis to the United Nations regarding the release of dozens of employees from its offices and international and local aid organizations in Yemen, Yemeni legal sources revealed the group’s intention to refer a new batch of these detainees to court in preparation for their trial on charges of espionage for the United States.
Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Houthi Foreign Ministry had pledged to the UN to address the detainees’ issue, starting by allowing them to contact their families. A limited number of detainees were indeed allowed to make quick phone calls to their families, but the rebel group refused to allow them legal representation. The humanitarian community was then surprised by the referral of the first group to the State Security and Counter-Terrorism Prosecution, in preparation for their trial.
According to the sources, the group also intends to refer another batch of detainees to the prosecution for trial, including individuals detained since 2021 for their work with the U.S. Embassy before it was closed following the Houthis’ storming of Sana’a in September 2014. This move disregards international demands for respecting the immunity granted to UN employees and aid workers.
These developments come as two international organizations confirmed that the Houthis arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared dozens of UN employees and civil society members since May 31, with the number of detainees continuing to rise.
Niku Jafarnia, a researcher on Yemen and Bahrain for Human Rights Watch, stated that the Houthis continue to call on the international community to respect the rights of Palestinians in Gaza while simultaneously violating the rights of people living in the areas under their control. She stressed that “they should show the same respect to the Yemeni people that they demand for Palestinians, starting by ending this endless campaign of arbitrary detentions.”
International Condemnation
According to a joint statement issued by Human Rights Watch and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Houthis arrested dozens of individuals for celebrating the anniversary of the establishment of the Republic in northern Yemen on September 26, 1962. In other cases, they arrested individuals for social media posts or other online content commemorating the occasion.
A man whose brother was arrested for posting a video celebrating the anniversary recounted that five Houthi military vehicles arrived at his brother’s home the following day. The Houthis demanded that he delete his YouTube channel and his latest post on September 26. He said his brother was taken to the Criminal Investigation Department, and while detainees began to be released on September 30, his brother was transferred to the Intelligence and Security Department and has not yet been released.
According to the statement, a writer from Sana’a with a large social media following was also arrested after posting content about the occasion. A friend reported that Houthis arrived at his home in several military vehicles, “broke into the house, smashed doors, frightened his wife and son, and took him along with his devices, laptop, phones, and old cameras, thoroughly searching the house.” The Houthis provided neither an arrest warrant nor a search warrant, violating Yemeni and international law.
Others reported to the two organizations that the Houthis threatened or intimidated them to prevent them from posting anything about the “September 26 Revolution.” A woman mentioned receiving a threatening phone call due to her social media posts about the anniversary.
The woman said she was never afraid of the Houthis, but she expressed frustration that she couldn’t celebrate the revolution’s anniversary publicly or raise the republic’s flag. She also lamented that the Yemeni flag was absent from the streets of Sana’a during the revolution’s anniversary, and that she cried every day.
The two organizations clarified that arresting a person without a warrant or clear charges constitutes a violation of Article 132 of Yemen’s Criminal Procedure Law. They also stated that detaining a person without any basis in local or international law, and without promptly charging them, is a violation of international human rights law.
The United Nations Expert Group on Yemen reported last year that they had documented many cases involving arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture, and that “most of the violations investigated by the committee were attributed to the Houthis.”
