By: Asmaa Muhammad

rom time to time, Houthi militias issue death sentences and confiscating funds against dozens of their opponents whether from officials or others at home and abroad, without any justification for that.

The charges are often ready, and they are the same charges that they use a lot to condemn their opponents and undermine them in a way that they believe that they destroy the present and future of their opponents, but the matter is not motivated by revenge only, but it also exceeds it to other matters.

New objectives:

Houthi practices did not differ during the war, but their violations increased significantly. At the beginning of March, the Specialized Criminal Court controlled by the Houthi gave a ruling for the execution of 35 parliamentarians and confiscating their real estate and movable property inside and outside the republic, on charges of collaborating with the Arab Alliance.

Among those parliamentarians condemned to death, Abd al-Wahhab Maaudhah, who later confirmed that the militias accompanied by a group of Zaynabiyat gunwomen stormed his house and forced the women and children inside to leave, stressing that this is his second house that they seized.

The Houthi militias also stormed two houses belonging to the Parliamentary Academy, Saleh al-Sanabani, tampered with their contents, and forced his family and guards to leave them, and then confiscated and photographed all his belongings and confiscated two laptops, in addition to storming the house of Parliamentary Representative Abdul Karim al-Aslami.

On the 17th of this month, the court also issued an absentia death sentence for 19 military leaders in the legitimate government (Discretionary punishment), including Vice President Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar and Defense Minister Muhammad Ali al-Maqdashi.

In less than a month of that court ruling, the Specialized Criminal Court controlled by the Houthi militias sentenced to death 40 members of Parliament and opposing military leaders, including Thabit Jawwas, Hashem al-Ahmar, and Yousef al-Sharraji.

According to lawyer Abdul Basit Ghazi the head of the defense for the detainees and forcibly disappeared during a session similar to secrecy and without the knowledge of most members of the defense committee, the Specialized Criminal Court controlled by the Houthi militias also issued on the 23rd of March a death sentence and confiscation of money of 27 people, including military leaders, foremost of which Adnan al-Hammadi, who was killed last December, surprising that the court accepted the prosecution's evidence and rejected the defense evidence.

As for the charge against all of those convicted, it was impersonations, assisting the enemy, and inciting the countries of the Saudi aggression (the Arab Alliance) to launch a war against Yemen. The court ruling included confiscating the fixed and moveable assets of the convicts and transforming them into the state treasury.

Such charges and court rulings were issued - previously - against President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and a number of ministers, officials and abductees covered by the prisoner exchange agreement.

Illegal trials:

Throughout the years of their coup, the militias issued dozens of court rulings, which are described by jurists as illegal, and most of these court rulings were issued by the Specialized Criminal Court, which was supposed to be transferred from Sana'a to Marib by the decision of the Supreme Judicial Council in the interim capital, Aden, in April 2018.

While others believe that these trials lack legitimacy, not only because they were issued by a court that was transferred, but because it is under the control of the Houthi coup militias and it is not entitled to issue such rulings.

Justify the plunder

Abdul Rahman Barman, head of the American Center for Justice ACJ, says that the Houthis aim through the trials to find legal justifications, however invalid, in order to confiscate the property of the people who judge them.

And in press statements, he clarified that the Houthis consider these justifications that give them the right to seize the funds of those who issue rulings against them, stressing that "legally those provisions are worthless and invalid because they issued by an illegal and unconstitutional court, which a decision has been issued to cancel it."

Indeed, the militias confiscated the money and property of many of their opponents in areas controlled by them, where the wealth of their leaders and supporters increased greatly.

Directed messages:

In his understanding of these Houthi practices, Berman considered that everyone deals with the Houthis as militias and armed men who turned against the state, and through these trials, they want to send a message to the world stating that they are a state has a judiciary that has a right to issue rulings and even can try the President of the Republic.

He pointed out, as evidence of that, that they hold parliament sessions despite the lack of a quorum, and that they detain nearly 100 parliamentarians to continue the work of the parliament under coercion.

Settlement of scores

In a related context, the Organization of SAM for Rights and Liberties condemned these death sentences and confirmed that these sentences consider a dangerous precedent and stigma in the brow of the judiciary, which has turned into a tool for settling political scores between the Houthi group and its political opponents.

In a statement issued by it, Tawfiq Al-Hamidi, head of the Organization, said that the information and evidence that the Organization has, confirm beyond any doubt that the judiciary in the Specialized Courts is only a spokesman for the will of the revolutionary committees that practically manage and control all the institutions and executive departments in the capital, Sana'a, including the judiciary.

And he proved his words by indicating that the Houthi group had moved the political case against parliamentarians after the Parliament was convened in the city of Sayyun on April 13, 2019, which confirms that its main goal was political revenge, confiscation of opponents' real estate property, and giving false legitimacy to these practices, although part of these The property was effectively at the disposal of members of the Houthi group.

Claiming the protection of civilians:

And with the Houthi militia taking advantage of the uniquity with the scene in the areas it controls by force and carrying out illegal practices, the organization of SAM for Rights and Liberties called on international community organizations, foremost of which the United Nations, to intervene to protect civilians in Yemen, press the Houthis to release the abducted immediately, reveal the fate of the forcibly disappeared, stop the absurd false trials that do not serve peace in Yemen, ensure the protection of the personal property of civilians in accordance with the requirements of the Yemeni constitution and international humanitarian law and stop the political reprisals practiced in the name of the judiciary.

For his part, the human rights office, through Liz Thursel, called on the "de facto authorities to immediately repeal the court rulings issued against the Parliament' representatives and to ensure that their families are not harassed," stressing that these court rulings were issued by political motivations.

The obstinacy of the Militia:

Despite the various condemnations of the trials carried out by the militias, they renewed their adherence to implementing the rulings issued by them, and claim that they are a sovereign and constitutional right.

The militias have refused to respond to the call of the United Nations Human Rights Office demanded to stop these sentences be suspended, and it also surprised that the trial was issued by political motivations.

Thus, the chances of a possible political solution in Yemen have become out of reach, according to political analysts, because the militias cut off the various paths in front of these chances through their practices, especially as they coincided with many battles on some fronts of the fighting.

Likewise, it is expected the continuation of such practices that their area expands day after day, because there is no watchman that prevents these militias from doing this or hold them accountable, and thus the militias unjustly seize citizens’ money and property.