Sanaa (South24)

Human Rights Watch said that Houthi authorities in Yemen continue to keep in detention at least 12 people, including former US embassy and UN employees, without following due process, and have charged them with crimes that carry possible death sentences, raising serious concerns that they may be subjected to torture to extract confessions.

The international rights organization said in a statement published today that Houthi authorities have since June released videos showing confessions by some of the detainees, accusing them of spying for the United Nations and Israel. Human Rights Watch expressed concern that these confessions were possibly extracted from the men under torture, noting that publishing such confessions undermines the right to a fair trial and lacks credibility.

The organization confirmed the deaths of three prominent detainees in Houthi custody since the fall of 2023: Mohammed Khamash, Sabri Hakimi, and Hisham al-Hakimi. It said that Khamash and Sabri Hakimi were senior officials in the Ministry of Education, while Hisham al-Hakimi was an employee of Save the Children.

Khamash’s family received a call from Houthi authorities on October 22 asking them to collect his body without clarifying the cause of death, after he was arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared since June.

“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,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “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.”

The organization also noted that detainees are denied access to lawyers, even when their families appoint them, which it considered a clear violation of the rights of defense.

Human Rights Watch pointed to an increase in death sentences issued by Houthi courts, including at mass trials which it termed as unfair. The organization concluded its statement by calling on the Houthis to end their practice of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance, and improve prison conditions. HRW also urged influential countries to take action to ensure the protection of detainees' rights and prevent the recurrence of deaths inside Houthi prisons.