SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties, headquartered in Geneva, expressed its grave concern for the fate of the detainees in Houthi prisons who were sentenced in the illegitimate state security court in what is known as the case of the 36 detainees, Nasr Al Salami and others.

SAM adds, in a statement that it issued on Sunday, April 7th, 2019, that it learned that the criminal court judge had held the case yesterday for the official sentencing during the session next Saturday, April 13th, 2019.

During the session the lawyer, Hussein Al Hamami, was detained, and he was accused of aiding in a murder.

SAM stressed that the courts of the Houthi militias have deliberately and overtly violated all of the procedures of justice, and they have prohibited the detainees and their lawyers from the right to a defense in court, which is a right that is granted to them by national and international laws. During the court session on Saturday, April 6th, the public prosecutor’s office of the Houthi militias submitted a forensic lab report, which was made up of five pages, and the court only gave the defense team one hour to respond to this report. The court refused the request of the lawyers to be given time to review the report and respond to it, and it heard the response of the prosecution during the same session and held the case for sentencing without looking into the requests of the accused and the defense team. This is a clear and open violation of the criminal justice law and the principles of a just court system, and it has instilled great fear because of the clear intentions to issue harsh sentences against these civilian detainees.

SAM stated that the Houthi-controlled court held its last sessions in the attendance of all of the accused, with the exception of Dr. Yusuf Al Bawab, who was usually the one speaking to the court and the public prosecutor’s office on behalf of the rest of the detainees, and he is continuously being punished. His family has not been able to visit him since the court session last Tuesday, and his fellow detainees have said that Dr. Al Bawab has been disappeared since the last session, and that none of them have seen him since the last court session that he attended with them.

During the past two weeks, the Houthis have been exceptionally harsh towards the detainees in their prisons, and they have not allowed the weekly visits in the Political Security Organization prison. They have kept the detainees in horrible conditions, as is detailed in the previous statement.

SAM fears that the 36 detainees will be sentenced by the unconstitutional court that is trying them, even though this court had already been ordered closed by the Supreme Judicial Council. The court has been deliberately neglecting the complaints of the detainees about being subject to constant torture in the Political Security Organization prison. The court has also the legal defenses that have been submitted by the defense team, rejected some of their legal requests, and detained some of the lawyers of the detainees to create an atmosphere of fear and terror. This is the court that has issued death sentences against the President of the Republic and his advisors, in addition to being involved in the procedures of looting and confiscating the property of more than 2,000 Yemeni citizens whose names were included on lists and whose property was taken and put in judicial guardianship to prepare for their confiscation.

SAM believes that this court is not constitutional and that its rulings have no meaning, and it reiterates that this court is being used as a tool by the Houthi militias to extort and abuse those that oppose them, as well as to give their crimes a sort of legal cover because they are considered to have been issued by a court.

SAM calls upon the Houthi militias to immediately stop abusing the detainees being held in prisons, and it has not been long since they were turned from prisoners in these prisons to the ones controlling the prisons.

SAM also calls upon the international community the UN Special Envoy to Yemen to pressure the Houthi militias urgently so that they stop the trials of the detainees and start on the procedures of unconditionally releasing them.

SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties

Geneva – April 7th, 2019