Yemen Houthi rebels execute nine over killing
SANAA, Yemen — Yemen’s Houthi rebels executed on Saturday nine people they said were involved in the killing of a senior rebel official in an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition more than three years ago.
The execution took place by firing squad and was held in public with hundreds looking on, early in the morning in the rebel-held capital of Sanaa.
The nine wore sky blue prison garb with their hands bound behind their backs. Masked guards led them to an open area and forced them to lie down on their stomachs. Another officer with a rifle shot them to death in their backs.
The executions took place despite repeated calls by rights groups and lawyers to stop the killings and retry the suspects. They said the trial, held in a rebel-controlled court, was flawed.
The nine were among more than 60 people the Houthis accused of involvement in the targeted killing of Saleh al-Samad, president in the Houthi-backed political body, and six of his companions in April 2018. Also accused were top Western, Israeli and Gulf Arab officials, including former President Donald Trump, according to court documents.
The Houthis charged the nine of spying for the Saudi-led coalition, which has been waging war against the rebels since 2015 to bring back Yemen’s internationally recognized government to power.
The nine, including a 17-yearold boy, were arrested months after al-Samad’s killing. They had been forcefully disappeared for months in undisclosed places where they suffered inhuman treatment, according to Abdel-Majeed Sabra, a Yemeni lawyer representing one of the people executed.
The executions were broadcast on big screens in Sanaa’s Tahrir Square, causing outrage across the country.
“What I would say. I can’t believe what has happened. This is madness and a crime,” Abdel-Rahman Noah, a brother of one of the executed, said.
Another relative said she did not expect the Houthis to go through with the executions. “We were shocked. … We thought that they were just threatening,” she said tearfully, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The rebels did not respond to requests for comment.
The stalemated civil war has killed more than 130,000 people and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.