عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

4 Yemeni Media Figures Face Possible Death Sentence for Criticizing Houthis 

The social media figures appear at the Houthi court in Sanaa. (Houthi media)
The social media figures appear at the Houthi court in Sanaa. (Houthi media)
TT
20
TT

4 Yemeni Media Figures Face Possible Death Sentence for Criticizing Houthis 

The social media figures appear at the Houthi court in Sanaa. (Houthi media)
The social media figures appear at the Houthi court in Sanaa. (Houthi media)

The Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen kicked off the trial of four social media figures for allegedly criticizing the militias’ corrupt practices. 

They appeared before a court tasked with tackling terrorism cases, sparking concerns that death sentences may be issued against them. 

Ahmad Hajar, Mustafa al-Mumary, Hamoud al-Mesbahi and Ahmad al-Law were kidnapped by the Houthis some two weeks ago and made to appear before a Sanaa court. 

Social media activists circulated photos of the detainees as they appeared in court where they were charged with inciting to create chaos and calling on the people to storm Houthi-held government buildings. 

The charges said the detainees set up YouTube channels that they ran from Sanaa and where they posted false news, statements and rumors with the aim of influencing the public and harming public interests. 

They have denied the charges against them. 

The arrest sparked popular outcry in Yemen even in regions that are held by the militias and among their loyalists. 

Tensions are already high in Houthi-controlled regions because of the militias’ increased corrupt practices while the people’s suffering grows, from lack of food, the withholding of their salaries and other hardships. 

Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani slammed the arrest, comparing the Houthi practices to the Iranian regime’s crackdown on dissidents. 

He said the detainees were arrested for criticizing the corruption of the Houthis and the dire state of affairs in regions under their control. 

He dismissed their trial as a sham, saying it was an extension of the Houthi oppression against the media and journalist since they launched their coup against the legitimate authorities. 

He added that death sentences that have been laid down against journalists are aimed at intimidating them, muzzling the press and barring them from reporting the facts and Houthi crimes against the people. 

Moreover, the minister questioned the ongoing international silence over the Houthis’ kidnapping of people, their sham trials and baseless death sentences against politicians, journalists and activists in areas under their control all for “demanding freedom and a dignified life.” 

Eryani called on the international community, United Nations and United States’ envoys and rights organizations to speak out against the Houthi oppression and to pressure the militias to immediately release all journalists. 

Most Viewed

 
Arab World

Iraq Starts Excavation of Large Mass Grave Left by ISIS

Iraqi soldiers salute as they stand next to a mass grave for soldiers from Camp Speicher who have been killed by ISIS militants. REUTERS/Stringer
Iraqi soldiers salute as they stand next to a mass grave for soldiers from Camp Speicher who have been killed by ISIS militants. REUTERS/Stringer
TT
20
TT

Iraq Starts Excavation of Large Mass Grave Left by ISIS

Iraqi soldiers salute as they stand next to a mass grave for soldiers from Camp Speicher who have been killed by ISIS militants. REUTERS/Stringer
Iraqi soldiers salute as they stand next to a mass grave for soldiers from Camp Speicher who have been killed by ISIS militants. REUTERS/Stringer

Iraqi officials have begun the excavation of what is believed to be a mass grave left behind by the ISIS extremist group during its rampage across the country a decade ago.

Local authorities are working with the judiciary, forensic investigations, Iraq’s Martyrs’ Foundation, and the directorate of mass graves to carry out the excavation of the site of a sink hole in al-Khafsa, south of the northern city of Mosul, the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported Sunday.

Ahmad Qusay al-Asady, head of the Martyrs Foundation’s mass graves excavation department, told The Associated Press that his team began work at Khasfa on Aug. 9 at the request of Nineveh province’s Gov. Abdulqadir al-Dakhil.

The operation is initially limited to gathering visible human remains and surface evidence while preparing for a full exhumation that officials say will require international support.

After an initial 15 days of work, the foundation’s Mosul teams will build a database and start collecting DNA samples from families of suspected victims.

Al-Asady explained that laboratory processing and a DNA database must come first to ensure proper identification. Full exhumations can only proceed once specialized assistance is secured to navigate the site’s hazards, including sulfur water and unexploded ordnance.

Khasfa is “a very complicated site,” he said.

Based on unverified accounts from witnesses and families and other unofficial testimonies, authorities estimate that thousands of bodies could be buried there, he said.

Scores of mass graves containing thousands of bodies of people believed to have been killed by the extremist group have been found in Iraq and Syria.

At its peak, ISIS ruled an area half the size of the United Kingdom in Iraq and Syria and was notorious for its brutality. It beheaded civilians and enslaved and raped thousands of women from the Yazidi community, one of Iraq’s oldest religious minorities.

The group was defeated in Iraq in July 2017, when Iraqi forces captured the northern city of Mosul. Three months later, it suffered a major blow when Kurdish forces captured the Syrian northern city of Raqqa, which was the group’s de-facto capital. The war against ISIS officially ended in March 2019, when US-backed and Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces captured the eastern Syrian town of Baghouz, which was the last sliver of land the extremists controlled.

Rabah Nouri Attiyah, a lawyer who has worked on more than 70 cases of missing people in Nineveh, told the AP that information he obtained from the foundation and different Iraqi courts during his investigations points to Khasfa as “the largest mass grave in modern Iraqi history."

Al-Asady, however, said investigators “cannot confirm yet if it is the largest mass grave” to be found in Iraq, “but according to the size of the space, we estimate it to be one of the largest.”

Attiyah said roughly 70% of the human remains at Khasfa are believed to belong to Iraqi army and police personnel, with other victims including Yazidis.

He said he has interviewed numerous eyewitnesses from the area who saw ISIS fighters bring people there by bus and kill them. “Many of them were decapitated,” he said.

Attiyah’s own uncle and cousin were police officers killed by ISIS, and he is among those hoping to identify and recover the remains of loved ones.

Testimonies and witness statements, as well as findings from other mass graves in Nineveh, indicate that most of the military, police and other security forces personnel killed by ISIS are expected to be found at Khasfa, along with Yazidis from Sinjar and Shiite victims from Tal Afar, he said.