The Iran-backed Houthi militias continued their wave of arrests, reaching the highest ranks of the Houthi command.
Under the supervision of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) experts, they arrested Ali Abbas, the director of the office of Yehya al-Houthi – the militias’ leader – on alleged charges of spying for the United States.
Political sources in Sanaa told Asharq Al-Awsat that Houthi intelligence, which operates under the IRGC, arrested Abbas and deputy at the Ministry of Education Ahmed al-Nunu on spying charges.
The sources said the arrests were based on investigations the Houthis have carried out with dozens of detainees who used to work for United Nations offices and other international organizations, as well as former staff at the US embassy in Yemen and the Netherlands.
The legitimate Yemeni government condemned the Houthis for kidnapping Nunu.
Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said the arrest sheds light on the ongoing oppression the Houthis practice in regions under their control.
“No one is safe from their violent practices, not even people who have worked for them since their coup,” he added.
The Houthis had kidnapped other senior Education Ministry officials, professor Mohammed al-Mekhlafi and expert Mujib al-Mekhlafi, nine months ago.
Eryani said the Houthis also executed educational expert Sabri al-Hakimi while in detention because he refused to join their effort to change curricula that would promote the militias’ goals.
He called on the international community, UN and rights organizations to speak out against these “heinous crimes.”
He also called for the designation of the Houthis as a terrorist organization and for the international community to offer real and effective support to the government so that the state can impose its control throughout the country and end the violations against the Yemeni people.
