YEMEN: HOUTHI COURT SENTENCES 35 PRO-GOVERNMENT DEPUTIES TO DEATH

March 5, 2020:

The Houthi-controlled Specialized Criminal Court in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on 3 March 2020 sentenced 35 Yemeni pro-government deputies to death after charging them with cooperating with the Saudi-led Arab coalition.
The charged include parliament Speaker Sultan al-Burkani, his deputy Abdulaziz al-Jabari, Jawf governor Amin al-Akimi and Chief of Staff Sagheer bin Aziz.
The Houthis accused them of “treason”, supporting the legitimate government and the Saudi-led Arab coalition and demanded that they by executed and that their properties be confiscated.
A lawmaker included in the ruling, MP Mohammad Muqbel Ali Al-Humair, told Asharq Al-Awsat: “I consider it an honor as it asserts that we have hurt the Houthis, helped defeat their agenda and resisted this racist movement that is an extension of the Persian project that is hostile to Arabs and Islam.”
He said the Houthis promote a project of death, not of life and development, adding that the death sentence was not only directed against the MPs who oppose them, but the entire Yemeni people.
Al-Humair had quit Sanaa for Taiz in 2015. He had opposed the militias long before their coup against the legitimate government in 2014.
Last year, the Houthis forced lawmakers under their control in Sanaa to drop the immunity off MPs who support the legitimate government after parliament convened in a landmark session in Seiyun in April.