Houthis slammed for abducting former Yemeni culture minister

Armed men associated with the Iran-backed Houthi militia on Sunday abducted a former Yemeni culture minister from his home in Sanaa, his son said.

Whadhah Al-Ruwaishan wrote on Facebook: “(A) Houthi group abducted my father half an hour ago.” No further details were given and the Houthis have not commented on the abduction allegation.

Khaled Al-Ruwaishan, who is a well-respected writer and poet, has criticized the Houthis’ power grab, its crackdown on dissidents and its military expansion across Yemen. He has more than 93,000 followers on Twitter, 400,000 followers on Facebook and is seen as one of the most respected Yemeni intellectuals who is equally critical of Houthis and their opponents.

BACKGROUND Khaled Al-Ruwaishan, who is a well-respected writer and poet, has criticized the Houthis’ power grab, its crackdown on dissidents and its military expansion across Yemen.

Activists have linked the abduction to his most recent Facebook post about a Yemeni poet who praised the courage of fighters in Marib who foiled a Houthi military offensive.

“These verses should become the morning anthem in every Yemeni school,” Al-Ruwaishan told fellow poet Amer Al-Souaidi in a Facebook post on Saturday.

In another post, on April 15, Al-Ruwaishan criticized Yemeni traders inside Houthi-held Sanaa and the rebel government for not giving financial assistance to thousands of laborers who lost their jobs in the aftermath of flash floods that had hit Sanaa.

“In Houthis’ time, people’s hearts died and were petrified,” he said in the post, which attracted thousands of likes and hundreds of comments. His abduction caused an outcry on social media where dozens of current and former ministers, journalists, writers, and Al-Ruwaishan’s admirers condemned the Houthis and demanded his immediate release.

Mohammed Askar, the Yemeni human rights minister, urged the UN to intervene.