Houthi authorities in Yemen have launched criminal prosecution against 12 detained individuals while denying them due process rights, with some facing charges that carry the death penalty, according to a Human Rights Watch report published on Thursday. Among these detainees are UN and former US embassy staff.
According to the group’s documentation, these individuals, detained between 2021 and 2023, have been held incommunicado throughout their detention with no access to legal representation during interrogations or family visits, despite written directives from prosecutors to facilitate such visits. The organization reports that their June 19 inquiries to Houthi authorities regarding these arrests and due process concerns remain unanswered.
Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch Niku Jafarnia explained:
The Houthis have consistently shown a contempt for due process and basic protections for defendants since they took over Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, and this has only grown in the last few months. Recent deaths in Houthi detention should alarm the international community and prompt immediate action to ensure that the hundreds of other people being arbitrarily detained by the Houthis don’t meet a similar end.
On June 10, Houthi authorities began releasing confession videos showing 10 Yemeni men admitting to espionage charges. Human rights experts warn these confessions may have been coerced, as the UN Security Council’s Panel of Experts on Yemen found in 2023 that detainees in Houthi-controlled facilities face systematic psychological and physical torture, with some cases resulting in permanent disabilities and death.
Beyond these cases, several humanitarian organizations, including Save the Children, Oxfam, and CARE International, reported that at least 18 additional humanitarian workers have been detained since May 31, including 13 UN staff members. These detentions violate international humanitarian law, particularly Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Articles 70 and 71 of Additional Protocol I, which require the protection of humanitarian workers and relief operations. The organizations issued a joint statement in August expressing deep concern over their detained colleagues’ wellbeing and calling for their immediate release, noting they have had no contact with the detainees for two months.
The humanitarian crisis has worsened as these detentions have forced the UN to curtail its activities in Yemen, focusing only on essential life-saving operations. Joyce Msuya, acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, has called on parties to respect international humanitarian law by releasing detained personnel and facilitating unimpeded humanitarian access.
While the last UN-brokered truce ended in October 2022, the Houthi de facto authorities have intensified their campaign of arbitrary detentions and rights violations. Despite a decline in military operations, Yemen remains one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with more than 21 million Yemenis in need of assistance and suffering from inadequate food, health care, and infrastructure.
