YEMEN: HOUTHI-CONTROLLED COURT SENTENCES 16 YEMENIS TO DEATH, 13 OTHERS TO PRISON

Houthi-run Specialised Criminal Court of First Instance in Yemen’s capital of Sana’a on 7 December 2022 convicted 16 Yemenis, seven of whom were already detained, on charges of communicating with and assisting the “Saudi-Emirati aggression countries”. They were sentenced to death by firing squad.
The court sentenced 13 others, all of whom were already detained, to prison terms ranging from 10 to 15 years on the same charges, as well as three years of security surveillance following the expiry of their original prison sentences.
The convicts were also forced to sign an undertaking promising to pay 15 million Yemeni riyals (about €56,000 EUR) if any one of them committed “a crime of aiding the aggression countries or illegally communicating with a foreign country within two years after the expiry of the original prison sentence”.
The de facto Houthi authorities did not provide any clarification on the rationale behind the rulings at the time they were issued or afterwards; details were later revealed by the defendants’ lawyer on Saturday, 17 December.
All 29 people hail from Saada, the Houthi movement’s heartland.