Embassy of the Republic of Yemen Strongly Condemns Houthis and Urges International Community to Act Against the Houthis Abduction and Detention of Yemeni Journalists, Politicians, Academics, and Activists.
November 15, 2019
The Embassy of the Republic of Yemen in Washington, D.C., reaffirms its categorical denunciation of the Iran-backed Houthi militias’ abduction and detention of Yemeni journalists, academics, politicians, and activists for their political beliefs. In May 2019, the Houthis sentenced 16 journalists to death on completely false allegations (as the Embassy noted in its tweet on May 10, 2019, and its letter to the Committee to Protect Journalists). Just two months later, in July 2019 Houthi militias sentenced another 30 innocent Yemenis to death for alleged affiliation with a rival political party. These and other sentences are a gross violation of human rights and the right to due process for all Yemenis. Since then, all of these innocent Yemenis have been held in captivity in miserable conditions, suffering beatings and torture at the hand of their Houthi captors.
Recently, the Embassy of the Republic of Yemen in Washington, D.C., has received many letters by international NGOs and concerned activists who have called for an immediate release of all prisoners, abductees and those who were forcibly disappeared by the Houthi militias.
“These letters from concerned individuals and organizations demonstrate the world’s desire to see these political prisoners freed from captivity,” said Ambassador of the Republic of Yemen Dr. Ahmed Awab BinMubarak. The Iran-backed Houthi militias continue to violate the basic human rights of those within their territory, and they have failed to uphold the release of all political prisoners, a critical component of the Stockholm Agreement.”
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (UNOHCHR) issued a statement in July confirming that the 30 Houthi prisoners were “subjected to arbitrary or unlawful detention, as well as torture and other ill-treatment in custody.” This atrocity must not be allowed to continue.
The government of Yemen calls on UN Security-General António Guterres and the international community to exercise the necessary and maximum pressure on the Houthi militias to stop their illegal trials of political prisoners and to immediately release all prisoners in accordance with the Stockholm Agreement and the related UN Security Council Resolutions.