Yemen’s Houthi rebels executed nine people on Saturday. They said they were involved in the killing of a senior rebel official in an air strike by a Saudi-led coalition more than three years ago.
The execution was carried out by the firing squad and was held in public early in the morning in Sana’a, the capital controlled by the rebel forces. The Houthis backed by Iran later released photos that clearly showed the killing. Hundreds of people participated in the executions, most of them Houthi fighters and their supporters.
Despite repeated calls by human rights organizations and lawyers to stop the killings and retrial the suspects, executions took place. They said the trial in a court controlled by the rebels was flawed and nine people were convicted and sentenced to death.
According to court documents obtained by the Associated Press, the Houthis were accused of participating in the targeted killing of more than 60 people in Samad in April 2018, 9 of them. Former President Donald Trump has also been charged. The accused are also high-ranking officials from the West, Israel and the Gulf Arab countries.
The Houthi armed forces accused the nine men of espionage for the Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the rebels for years in an effort to bring Yemen’s internationally recognized government back to power.
Killed in an air strike
Samad, who served as president in a political institution supported by Houthi, and six of his companions were killed in an airstrike in the coastal city of Hodeidah in a Saudi-led coalition.
Nine people, including a 17-year-old boy, were arrested a few months after al-Samad was killed. According to Abdel-Majeed Sabra, a Yemeni lawyer representing one of the executed, they were forced to disappear for several months and held in secret locations where they were treated inhumanely.
The execution was also broadcast on the big screen in Tahrir Square in Sana’a. The executions and public displays caused anger across the country, including the relatives of the nine and Sana’a, where people usually avoid criticizing the rebels for fear of retaliation.
“I can’t believe what happened. This is madness and crime,” Abdul Rahmanoya, the brother of one of the executed persons, told the Associated Press.
Another relative said that she did not expect the Houthis to execute the death penalty. “We are shocked… We think they are just threatening,” she said in tears, refusing to be named for fear of retaliation from the rebels.
The rebels did not respond to requests for comment.
The nine were dressed in sky blue prison uniforms, with their hands tied behind their backs. Masked guards took them to an open place and forced them to lie down on their stomachs. Another officer with a rifle shot them from their backs and killed them.
horrible
One of the executed persons looked scared while waiting for his turn to be shot; someone saw an armed Houthi hugging him tightly, perhaps so that he would not fall.
Lawyer Sabra said that the Houthis later allowed relatives to take the body away for burial. Eight people were taken to their hometown of Hodeida, while the ninth was buried in Sana’a.
Several human rights organizations, including the US Judicial Center based in the United States, called on the United Nations on Friday to intervene to stop executions. These groups stated that the trial “includes flagrant violations of fair trial guarantees and depriving individuals of the right to provide adequate defense.”
According to government officials and tribal leaders, also on Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition launched a suspected airstrike in an area between Shabwa and Bayda provinces and attacked their vehicles. At least six people were from the same family. .
The Saudi-led coalition did not immediately comment. The officials did not want to be named because they did not have the right to brief reporters, and the tribal chief spoke anonymously, fearing retaliation.
Yemen has been involved in the civil war since 2014, when Houthi forces swept through most of the north and occupied Sana’a, forcing the internationally recognized government into exile. The following year, the Saudi-led coalition fought on the side of the government.
The deadlocked conflict has caused more than 130,000 deaths and triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
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