The United Nations, the United States and the United Kingdom condemned the execution of nine people by Houthi rebels in Yemen yesterday. According to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the Yemenis group has not received a fair trial.
The nine were shot dead in front of hundreds of people in a square in the capital Sanaa. The Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, blamed the group for the fatal attack on a Houthi leader three years ago. They are said to have spied for the international coalition led by Saudi Arabia fighting the Houthis. Human rights activists and lawyers unsuccessfully called on the rebels not to let the executions go ahead.
A total of 60 people are accused of involvement in the attack on Saleh al-Samad. He was killed in an airstrike in the coastal city of Hodeida in April 2018. According to the AP news agency, the Houthis also hold former President Trump responsible, as well as senior officials from the west, Israel and the Gulf region.
‘treated inhumanely’
Al-Samad was one of the main rebel leaders. Shortly after the attack, the nine were arrested and detained, after which they were said to have been treated “inhumanly” according to one of their lawyers. The executions have sparked a lot of unrest in war-torn Yemen.
Yemen has been embroiled in a bloody civil war for years, with an estimated 130,000 casualties. The conflict started when Houthi rebels ousted the government from the capital Sanaa in late 2014. An international coalition has since tried to oust the Houthis, including with air strikes. The war has led to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the country.
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