Houthi militias in Yemen have announced forming an entity to settle disputes in place of the constitutional judiciary. The Houthi decision comes against the background of judges and lawyers in areas run by the Iran-backed militia insisting on their strike for the second week in a row.
Protesting judges considered the Houthi move a pivotal shift that is reminiscent of field inspection courts established in Iran after the 1979 revolution. They added that Houthis now face a choice of either promoting the constitution and the rule of law or dissolving the whole judiciary authority.
Judges in Houthi-run areas, backed by prosecutors and the Bar Association, are on open strike against the backdrop of the killing of a Supreme Court judge.
Judge Mohammed Hamran, a 63-year-old Supreme Court judge in Sanaa, was kidnapped from outside his home on Al-Asbahi street and found dead days later.
Judges are also refusing to be subject to the authority of the so-called “justice system” created by Muhammad al-Houthi, the cousin of the militia leader.
Moreover, Yemeni judges believe that the formation of committees of clerics, tribal leaders, provincial officials to settle disputes through tribal arbitration, and away from the law, constitutes a clear threat to the judiciary and an attempt to reproduce the experience of revolutionary courts in Iran.
Such means of settling disputes away from the judiciary, according to judges, will help Houthis achieve their political goals and empower their militias.
For their part, Houthis view the judges’ insistence on the strike as a challenge to their authority and a departure from the group’s constants of sectarian orientation.
Houthis had failed in getting the Yemeni judiciary to fully comply with their agenda’s goals.
Judicial sources underestimated the Houthi announcement and affirmed that judges and prosecutors will not back down from their demands.
