A human rights activist was sentenced to death on charges of espionage and aiding a hostile party
The Human Rights Watch organization has reported that Yemen’s Houthi authorities have sentenced a human rights activist to death. They did so on charges of espionage and aiding an enemy party. They then called on the Houthis to annul the ruling and end their growing crackdown on freedom of expression and women’s rights.
On 5 December 2023, the Specialized Criminal Prosecution of Sana’a convicted and sentenced to death Fatima Saleh Al-Arouli (35 years old), activist and former head of the Yemeni office of the Ministry of Defense, on charges of collaboration with the enemy.
“The repression against human rights activists and women’s rights activists in Houthi-controlled areas has reached terrifying new levels. The Houthis repress human rights and freedoms instead of providing people under their rule with basic necessities such as food and water.” This was stated by Nico Jafarnia, researcher in Yemen and Bahrain at Human Rights Watch.
According to the report, the NGO spoke to four people with direct knowledge of Al-Arouli’s case and the conditions of her detention, including her brother Muhammad and a lawyer who sought to represent her, and reviewed court documents and other related reports to the case.
The sources said Al-Arouli was arrested on August 12, 2022 at a Houthi-controlled checkpoint in Al-Hawban district of Taiz governorate. It happened while she was traveling from Aden to Sana’a. Al-Arouli called her brother at the checkpoint to tell him that the Houthis had arrested her.
According to the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights, since the Houthis took control of the capital in 2014, they have sentenced 350 people to death and executed 11. On September 18, 2021, Houthi forces executed 9 people, including a 17-year-old young man, in Tahrir Square in Sana’a.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said: “The defendants were sentenced to death in a judicial trial that violated their constitutional rights and failed to meet fair trial standards under international law.”
The Houthis also arrested, forcibly disappeared and mistreated dozens of people, including political opponents, students, journalists and activists.
Jafarnia denounced: “Little by little, the rebels are turning the lives of women and human rights activists into hell in the areas under their control.”
