Abductees’ Mothers Association held the international community and the UN responsible for the lives and safety of 30 abductees, among of whom are academics and students, who had been sentenced to death by Houthi armed group after three years of physical and psychological torture and unfair defamation. In their rally this morning in front of UN Special Envoy in Sana’a, abductees’ mothers stated that the abandonment of their sons’ case and the derailment of its humanitarian negotiations has led to severe violations in their rights which, in turn, resulted in illegitimate trials.
Abductees’ mothers called upon human rights organizations and activists, and international media to stand by and help them stop the implementation of the executions and release them unconditionally and immediately. In a previous statement for the association, it was made clear that Houthis were not satisfied by only detaining the abductees for three years and prosecuting them, abductees were forcibly hidden for months where they underwent savage methods of physical and psychological torture such as electrification, torture by suspension, brutal beating, denailing, sticking needles beneath fingernails and toenails, tying genitals to doors, forced nudity, and forcibly drinking sewers water, as well as preventing visits, food, water, and medications.
Many international human rights organizations have condemned the judgements, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stating that they have been informed that many convicted abductees were victims of arbitrary arrest and detention, and have been tortured and mistreated while detained, and added that any political-based charges must be rejected. Likewise, Amnesty International stated that “The death sentence of thirty academics and political activists ruled by Houthi-controlled Supreme Criminal Court was a mockery of justice and only confirms how the judiciary, and the SCC in particular, is turning into a tool of repression, evidently incapable of dispensing impartial justice”.