#huthi

At around 3am on 9 June 2015, while bombs were pounding Sana’a City, my colleagues and I were working to document the Huthi takeover and the wave of their reprisals and violations against political activists, journalists, and members of civil society by the Huthis. There were nine of us, all devoted to one cause: we had a nation to save. As journalists it was part of our duty to expose Huthi crimes.

I also had a wedding to attend. Mine. It was a month away.

We were working in a hotel room because our previous two offices had been confiscated by the Huthis. We did not want our equipment to be damaged in another raid. A few days after moving to the hotel, I heard knocking on the door and then my name, and within seconds the armed militia stormed into our room. With no office to destroy, this time the Huthis came for us.

All nine of us were kicked and brutally beaten before we even entered the militia’s van. Little did we know, this was just the start of the unfathomable evil to come. I was beaten in and out of consciousness during interrogations and their so-called ‘punishments’, but I had no crime to confess. I was a journalist!

Since they seized power, the Huthi de facto authorities have waged an all-out war on media professionals.

Our professional overview map of territorial control in Yemen was updated this past weekend, with continued gains by the internationally-unrecognized Houthi government.

Youssef al-Bawab, a 45-year-old father of five, is a linguistics professor and political figure. He was being tried alongside 35 others who were all arbitrarily arrested between 2015 and 2016 by the Huthis and allied forces. On 20 October 2016, Youssef al-Bawab was arbitrarily arrested as he was leaving his local mosque in Sana’a. Later that night, the Huthi de facto authorities raided his house, where his wife and five children live, and confiscated his belongings, including his personal computer and 150 academic documents. 

During the first three months, the family was unable to obtain any official information as to his whereabouts; they only found out that PSO was detaining him three months later, through unofficial channels. He was interrogated for the first time in March 2017 in the presence of his lawyer, the only time he was permitted to have legal counsel prior to the trial. He was then charged on 8 April 2017, alongside 35 others, with several offences, including assisting the Saudi Arabia-led coalition with intelligence regarding military objectives and organizing assassinations; most of these charges carry the death penalty. 

Throughout his detention, proceedings against Youssef al-Bawab were seriously flawed. Irregularities included enforced disappearance, excessive pre-trial detention, undue delays in his trial, incommunicado detention, claims of torture and other ill-treatment and lack of access to legal counsel and medical care. 

All parties to the conflict, including Huthi forces, the Yemeni government, the Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE)-led coalition and UAE-backed Yemeni forces have engaged in arbitrary detention practices. In areas they controlled, Huthi forces arbitrarily arrested and detained critics and opponents as well as journalists, human rights defenders and members of the Baha’i community, subjecting scores to unfair trials, incommunicado detention and enforced disappearance. The majority of those targeted have been leaders, members or supporters of the political party al-Islah. The internationally recognized Yemeni government harassed, threatened and arbitrarily detained human rights defenders and other activists. 

Meanwhile, UAE-backed Yemeni forces in southern Yemen conducted a campaign of arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances. In May 2018, Amnesty International published a report detailing the cases of 51 men held in a network of secret prisons by UAE and Yemeni forces operating outside the command of Yemen’s government, including individuals detained between March 2016 and May 2018.

Die Huthi-Miliz im Jemen hat sich zu einer Waffenruhe mit den USA bereit erklärt - vorausgesetzt, auch die Regierung in Washington hält sich an die Vereinbarung. [...]

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[...] Huthi-Sprecher Abdel-Salam stellte klar, dass die Übereinkunft mit den USA keineswegs auch für Israel gelte. Die Miliz werde ihre "Unterstützung für die Palästinenser im Gazastreifen unvermindert fortsetzen". Die Haltung gegenüber Israel bleibe unverändert. 

Der Oman hat nach eigenen Angaben eine Feuerpause zwischen den USA und den Huthi im Jemen vermittelt. [...]

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Zuvor hatte US-Präsident Donald Trump in Washington bereits verkündet, dass die pro-iranische Miliz gegenüber den Vereinigten Staaten eingeknickt sei. Die Huthi würden keine Schiffe mehr angreifen, erklärte Trump und sprach von einer Kapitulation. Im Gegenzug würden die USA ihre Luftangriffe auf die Huthi im Jemen stoppen. "Wir werden die Bombardierungen einstellen. [...]

Weitere Einzelheiten waren nach Trumps Aussagen vollkommen unklar. [...]

Die Huthi bestätigten die Waffenruhe zunächst nicht. Ein ranghoher Vertreter der Miliz sagte lediglich, die US-Ankündigung werde geprüft. [...]

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