Yemen’s Justice Minister Jamal Mohammed Omar said Houthi militias and forces loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh destroyed and looted all courts and prosecution offices they invaded and turned them into military headquarters.
Speaking at the opening session of Arab justice ministers’ meeting in Cairo, Omar said members of the judiciary have not received their wages in more than a year, adding that many of them were arrested or excluded by militias thus halting the judiciary’s work in most districts they control.
“Houthi-led coup militias have destroyed and looted the courts in all the Yemeni provinces that they invaded, and turned them into military headquarters,” he said.
Militiamen looted courthouses contents and destroyed all stored documents, Omar added.
The Council of Arab Ministers of Justice held its 33rd session on Thursday at the headquarters of the Arab League (AL) under UAE Justice Minister, upon an invitation from Secretary-General Ahmed Abul Gheit.
Omar added that the justice ministry, the supreme judicial council and the Supreme Court now have headquarters in the temporary capital Aden.
More so, the justice minister paid tribute to the efforts of the Council of Arab Ministers of Justice, its executive office, the Technical Secretariat and the Arab Center for Legal and Judicial Research, which saw through to the achievement of many important tasks.
Pointing out that those incremental advances do not meet most of the council’s aspirations.
Achieving the goals and objectives of the Council requires not only double efforts, but also requires the creation of new mechanisms and means that are more productive.
This naturally requires the support and care of the council of the subsidiary bodies, in particular the Technical Secretariat and the Arab Center for Judicial Research, he said.
On the sidelines of the meetings, the Yemeni Minister of Justice met with his Egyptian counterpart, who expressed his country's readiness to hold training and rehabilitation courses for Yemeni judges and prosecutors in Egypt and exchange of experiences between the two countries.
