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UN chief calls on Yemen Houthi Rebels called on Tuesday not to prosecute detained UN personnel and for UN and foreign agencies and missions to work “in good faith” to immediately release all detained staff.
Secretary General Antonio Guterres UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric condemned the referral of UN personnel to the Houthis’ special criminal court and called the detention of UN staff a violation of international law.
There are currently a total of 59 UN personnel yemeni In addition to the civilians detained by the Iran-backed Houthis, they include dozens of civilians from non-governmental organizations, civil society and diplomatic missions, he said.
He said many of them have been referred to a criminal court in the Yemeni capital. sana“I believe there were processes still going on in court today and all of this is very, very worrying for us,” Dujarric said,
In late November the court convicted 17 people of spying for foreign governments, part of a years-long Houthi crackdown on Yemeni employees working for foreign organizations.
The court said the 17 people were part of “spy cells within a spy network affiliated with AmericanIsraeli and Saudi intelligence, according to the Houthi-run SABA news agency. They were publicly sentenced to death by firing squad, but lawyers for some of them said the sentences could be appealed.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement on Tuesday that one of those referred to the court was from his office. He said the colleague, who has been detained since November 2021, was produced before a “so-called” court “on fabricated charges of espionage related to his work.”
“This is completely unacceptable and serious human rights violence,” Turki said.
He said detainees were held in “intolerable conditions” and that his office had received “extremely worrying reports of ill-treatment of a number of staff”. Dujarric said some people have been kept out of touch for years.
Dujarric said the UN is in constant contact with the Houthis, and the secretary-general and others have also raised the issue of the detainees with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman and others.
The Houthis captured Sanaa in 2014 and have since been engaged in a civil war with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led military coalition.
The November decision was the latest in a Houthi crackdown on areas they control in Yemen. They have imprisoned thousands of people during the civil war.