Geneva – SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties, in collaboration with the "Justice Pact for Yemen" coalition and Yemeni civil society organizations, has sent a letter to the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Working Group on Fair Trials. The letter condemns the Houthi group’s human rights violations in Yemen, particularly regarding the deprivation of detainees' rights to fair trials.
The letter details the violations committed by the Houthi group since the conflict began in 2011, including:
The letter highlights that death sentences issued by Houthi-controlled courts were rendered through summary procedures that failed to meet the minimum standards of fair trials applicable in armed conflicts and normal circumstances. Moreover, the internationally recognized Yemeni government and the Southern Transitional Council have also failed to adhere to fair trial standards before or during trials.
The letter cites SAM's report, Years of Hell, published in October 2024, which includes documented testimonies of former Houthi detainees released through prisoner exchanges. These testimonies confirm that they were subjected to torture, denied visits, and prevented from meeting their lawyers.
The letter also expressed concern over the Houthis’ recent transfer of arbitrarily detained individuals, including employees in foreign embassies and UN agencies, to the specialized criminal prosecution on charges of espionage, without allowing them access to their lawyers or the right to defense.
SAM denounced the practices of the Houthi group toward detainees in the absence of any concrete action or clear stance on these violations. SAM held international entities fully responsible for ignoring the suffering of thousands without sufficient pressure on armed groups to release Yemeni detainees.
The letter pointed out that the various parties' impunity, lack of international criminal investigative mechanisms, and weak local accountability mechanisms have significantly contributed to retaliatory tactics against opponents, including the use of the judiciary as a tool for arbitrary deprivation of life and freedom.
The letter emphasized that international humanitarian law and relevant international conventions require armed groups to respect human rights standards, which prohibit arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture, and affirm the right to a fair trial.
The letter called for an independent international committee to investigate all politically motivated death sentences and review them to ensure justice, pushing for the abolition of the death penalty in political and ideological cases and halting all summary death sentences.
The letter also demanded the protection of judicial independence, ensuring justice free from political influences or interventions, and the formation of an independent legal committee to draft new legislation in line with human rights standards, protecting individuals from death sentences due to their political beliefs. Finally, it called for the release of all detainees and forcibly disappeared persons as a first step toward achieving peace in Yemen.