Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a Houthi military leader, is pressing on with measures to undermine the judiciary in Yemen’s militia-run areas, showing total indifference towards a strike led by Yemeni judges over the kidnapping and killing of Judge Mohamed Homran.
To date, most courts in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa are insisting on carrying on with their strike in protest of the killing of Homran with most judges refusing to return to work until the Houthi group meets the demands announced by the Yemen Courts Club.
The Club’s demands include charging and punishing Homran’s killers.
Homran, a 63-year-old Supreme Court judge in Sanaa, was kidnapped from outside his home on Al-Asbahi street and found dead days later.
Yemeni judges accuse al-Houthi of personally carrying out incitement against judges.
Moreover, al-Houthi is accused of establishing several measures to strip the judiciary of its powers and creating a parallel justice system that would stand in place of constitutional Yemeni courts and prosecutors.
The Public Prosecution in Sanaa had issued a notice to the Houthi minister of information to stop the broadcast of some programs on Al-Hawiya TV channel owned by Houthi commander Muhammad Ali Al-Emad.
According to legal sources, the programs in question have actively insulted and undermined the judiciary in Houthi-controlled areas.
Nevertheless, sources ruled out Houthis heeding the Prosecution’s demands, especially that al-Houthi continues to impose total control on judicial and executive institutions.
Last Sunday, al-Houthi urged so-called “free revolutionaries,” to form temporary committees to resolve disputes by reconciliation instead of the judiciary.
Al-Houthi’s demand was directed mostly to scholars, legal and tribal figures, governors, and judicial officers.
Asharq Al-Awsat, after monitoring Houthi media, discovered that al-Houthi and militia leaders had stepped in personally to resolve a total of 286 tribal disputes over the course of four years.
