Yemen: Deaths in Houthi detention, unfair trials

(Beirut) – The Houthi authorities in Yemen have referred at least twelve cases of individuals, including former US embassies and United Nations personnel, to their specialist criminal prosecutor since mid-October, charging some of them with crimes punishable by death while being denied a fair trial , according to Human Rights Watch Today. The Houthi authorities have done that held arbitrarily and forcibly disappeared dozens of UNs civil society staff since May 31, with informed sources telling Human Rights Watch that the number of detainees has continued to grow.

Beginning on June 10, Houthi authorities released a series of videos and compiled social media posts showing ten Yemeni men, some of whom are now part of the group of twelve men under investigation, confessing to spying for the United States and Israel. There is a high risk that these confessions have been coerced. Human Rights Watch has done that previously documented the Houthis’ use of torture to extract confessions, and three high-profile detainees have died in detention in the past year. Publishing videos of confessions undermines the right to a fair trial and lacks credibility.

“The Houthis have consistently shown disregard for due process and basic protections for defendants since they took over Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, and this has only grown in recent months,” he said. Niku JafarniaYemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The recent deaths in Houthi detention should alarm the international community and prompt immediate action to ensure that the hundreds of other people arbitrarily detained by the Houthis do not suffer a similar target.”

Human Rights Watch spoke to three people, including two UN officials, with knowledge of the criminal cases. The twelve people are being investigated by the Houthi-specialized criminal prosecution. They include former employees of the US embassy in Yemen and UN personnel arrested between 2021 and 2023. Many of them have been held incommunicado during their detention, without access to their families, and have been forcibly disappeared.

In mid-October, the men’s cases were transferred from the Houthis’ investigative unit to the prosecution unit. According to a UN official, some were questioned and interrogated as part of the transfer without a lawyer present. Another UN official told Human Rights Watch that some individuals were denied any access to lawyers while in detention. Although the Houthis have at least told the families of some detainees that they can appoint a lawyer for their relative, a lawyer with knowledge of the matter said that even in some cases where the families had done so, the Houthis still did not appoint the lawyers had allowed them to be present during their interrogations.

Human Rights Watch reviewed documents in which some families of detainees had demanded that specialized criminal prosecutions allow them to visit their detained relatives. Despite written directives from the prosecutor to the Houthi Security and Intelligence Directorate, the authority that oversees detention centers, asking them to facilitate these visits, families and lawyers of these detainees have still been denied access to detainees.

Those who have died in Houthi detention since fall 2023 include Mohammed Khamash, Sabri Hakimi and Hisham al-Hakimi. Khamash and Hakimi were both senior officials at the Ministry of Education, while al-Hakimi was an employee of Save the Children. On October 22, the Houthis contacted Khamash’s family and told them to retrieve his body. The cause of his death is unknown. Khamash has been arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared since June, without access to his family or lawyers.

The Houthis have repeatedly arrested people who criticized their policies on dubious charges. In January 2024 they are arrested a judge on alcohol-related charges, resulting in his release without trial after six months. In 2021, a Houthi court convicted a Yemeni model and actressIntisar al-Hammadi, as well as three other women, to prison after convicting them on charges of committing “an indecent act.”

Over the past year, Houthi courts have also sentenced people to death more often, including in one unfair mass trial in January, a Houthi court sentenced 32 men to prison and 9 to death on dubious charges. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all countries and under all circumstances. The death penalty is unique for its cruelty and finality, and its determination is often plagued by arbitrariness, bias and error, Human Rights Watch said.

Mohammed al-Shuwaiter, a Yemeni lawyer and executive director of Qanun, a human rights platform, wrote on October 16 on recent changes the Houthis had made to their legal system, stating that some of the changes to the court “constitute a direct violation of the independence of the judiciary and open the door wider to the use of the judiciary – especially the criminal courts – to settle political scores, suppress dissidents and confiscate property through sham trials.”

There has been a significant increase in the use of arbitrary detentions by the Houthis. forced disappearanceand passing death sentences in recent months.

In the arrests of UN and civil society officials in recent months, Houthi forces have not issued search or arrest warrants at the time of their arrest, and authorities have refused to tell families where those arrested are being held, meaning that these acts amount to coercive acts. disappearances. The Houthis have held many of the detainees incommunicado, without access to lawyers or their families.

On June 19, Human Rights Watch wrote a letter to the Houthis with questions about the arrests and concerns about the apparent lack of due process. The Houthis did not respond.

Human Rights Watch has previously documented this systematic abuses in Houthi prisons. In a 2023 report, the UN Security Council Panel of Experts on Yemen found that “Houthi detainees are subjected to systematic psychological and physical torture, including the denial of medical intervention to heal the injuries caused by the torture inflicted, which for some prisoners resulted in permanent disabilities and death.”

“These cases demonstrate the serious risks faced by the dozens, if not hundreds, of people in arbitrary detention in Houthi-controlled prisons,” Jafarnia said. “The Houthis must immediately end their use of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances and improve prison conditions, and states with influence must act to ensure no more people die in Houthi detention.”