Barran Press
Human rights sources reported on Thursday, August 1st, 2024, that the Houthi group, internationally designated as a terrorist organization, is continuing the trial of four journalists who were released from detention as part of a UN-brokered prisoner exchange in April 2023.
One of these journalists, Akram Al-Waladi, who was released in the exchange, considers this move a "blow to the heart of justice and a disregard for human rights charters."
"We feel the bitterness of pain and the weight of injustice," Al-Waladi told Barran Press, "We are following these unfair procedures taken by the Houthi militia, who are retrying us after we gained freedom through a prisoner exchange deal overseen by the United Nations."
Describing how he and his colleagues received the news of the continued trial, Al-Waladi said, "The news of these proceedings came to us like a bolt from the blue. After breathing the air of freedom and hoping the nightmare was over, we found ourselves back in the cycle of oppression and persecution."
He added, "These actions reflect a despicable behavior that uses people as tools to achieve narrow political gains, disregarding human values and international agreements."
Al-Waladi stressed that "the continuation of these unjust trials not only exposes us to unbearable psychological and physical pain but also foreshadows a bleak and painful future for other detainees still held by this militia."
He deemed this move "a slap in the face to all the noble efforts made by the United Nations and the international community to establish peace and restore rights to their rightful owners."
Al-Waladi called on the United Nations and the international community to "assume their historical and moral responsibilities and take immediate action to stop this farce," demanding that they "protect their rights, ensure respect for all agreements, and provide them and their families, who live in unbearable fear and anxiety, with the necessary psychological and legal support."
Al-Waladi concluded his statement to Barran Press by saying, "We believe that the voice of truth will not be lost, and that justice will prevail, no matter how long the injustice lasts. I hope that our voices will find an echo among the living consciences and concerned parties so that justice is achieved and security returns to our lives."
In late Ramadan, April 16th, 2023, the journalists (Abdulkhaleq Omaran, Tawfiq Al-Mansouri, Al-Harith Hamid, and Akram Al-Waladi) were released as part of a UN-brokered prisoner exchange between the internationally recognized Yemeni government and the Houthi group after eight years of arbitrary detention and kidnapping.
Commenting on this Houthi move, Yemen's Minister of Information, Culture, and Tourism, Muammar Al-Eryani, considered the Houthi group's continuation of "sham" trials of the released journalists a "blatant violation of the letter and spirit of the agreement, an attempt to sabotage any progress on the issue of prisoners and detainees, and further confirmation that the militia has no honor, covenant, or conscience."
Al-Eryani stated in a post on the "X" platform, monitored by Barran Press, that the Houthi group "kidnapped the journalists (Abdulkhaleq Omaran, Tawfiq Al-Mansouri, Al-Harith Hamid, and Akram Al-Waladi) from their workplace in June 2015, subjected them to various forms of psychological and physical torture, ill-treatment, and put them on trial on fabricated charges, issuing orders for their execution in April 2020, before they were released in a prisoner and detainee exchange deal."
He added that "these criminal practices fall within the Houthi militia's efforts to terrorize politicians, journalists, activists, and citizens in areas under its control, and its insistence on continuing its escalation, putting more obstacles in the way of sincere efforts by brotherly and friendly countries to achieve de-escalation and peace in Yemen."
In a recent report, the human rights organization "Rights Radar" clarified that "the judicial authorities affiliated with the Houthi group have issued more than 641 sentences of imprisonment and execution since their control of Sana'a in September 2014 until this July."
According to the organization, these sentences included "630 men, 10 women, and one child, 579 of whom were sentenced to death, including 6 women and one child, while 62 were sentenced to imprisonment, including 4 women."
"Rights Radar" stated that "the issuance of such decisions raises real concerns about the lives and safety of detainees and prisoners held by the Houthi group, as they are the party fully controlling the judiciary, putting the lives of detainees in real danger."
The international organization considered "the Houthi group's continued issuance of such referrals and the resulting decisions and judgments confirms one fact, which is the Houthis' use of the judiciary and prosecution as a tool for political liquidation and moral repression of their opponents and against anyone who refuses to engage in their political and ideological activities."