Yemen is facing one of its most severe waves of politically motivated judicial repression in recent years, as the Houthi militia initiates a sweeping round of prosecutions widely condemned as an attempt to weaponize the courts for political retribution and social intimidation.

The proceedings, conducted through the so called Specialized Criminal Court, are viewed by rights advocates as part of a systematic effort to clear the path for arbitrary executions and place dozens of civilians — including international humanitarian workers — at imminent risk.

Women Journalists Without Chains issued a warning on Tuesday, stressing that the hearings, formally opened on December 7, do not amount to legitimate judicial processes. Instead, the organization described them as a calculated stage in an expanding strategy to dismantle independent civic life, silence dissent, and obstruct humanitarian operations under what it called a “false veneer of legality.”

A Broad Campaign of Targeted Repression
The latest prosecutions encompass thirteen detainees drawn from highly sensitive professional sectors, among them United Nations and humanitarian staff, senior educators and academics, as well as former employees of the United States Embassy.

According to Women Journalists Without Chains, the charges replicate those used in earlier political trials — chiefly accusations of espionage and collaboration — underscoring what the organization described as the retaliatory and overtly political character of the campaign.

Recreating the Machinery of Mass Executions

What makes the current wave particularly alarming, the organization notes, is its direct continuity with the repression that reached its peak in November, when the Houthis issued mass death sentences against 17 abducted civilians following proceedings that lacked even the most basic legal safeguards.

The present prosecutions appear to be laying the groundwork for the same crime to be repeated against a new group of detainees.

A Court Without Law
Women Journalists Without Chains emphasized that the proceedings are being conducted before an entity that lacks any constitutional or legal standing, operating outside an independent judiciary and within a structure of grave violations, including:
•    Total denial of the right to defense
•    Prohibition of contact with lawyers and families
•    Closed and expedited hearings
•    Reliance on coerced confessions extracted under torture as the primary basis for conviction

Taken together, these practices render all resulting rulings legally void and place direct criminal responsibility on those administering the process.

Victims of the Current Prosecutions
The organization identified the detainees as:
1.    Prof. Mohammed Hatem Mohammed Othman Al-Mikhlafi — education expert, Sana’a University
2.    Mohammed Ali Al-Wazizah — Project Coordinator, UNESCO
3.    Hisham Ahmed Ali Al-Wazir — employee, USAID
4.    Shaif Hifzullah Al-Boudani — employee, USAID
5.    Amer Abdulmajid Al-Aghbari — Director, Global Partnership for Education in Yemen
6.    Abdulmoeen Hussein Azzan — staff member, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
7.    Bassam Ahmed Mohammed Al-Mardhi — former employee, U.S. Embassy in Yemen
8.    Jamil Abdo Mohammed Al-Faqih — former employee, U.S. Embassy in Yemen
9.    Abdulqader Ali Al-Saqqaf — former employee, U.S. Embassy in Yemen
10.    Jamal Mahmoud Sultan — former employee, U.S. Embassy in Yemen
11.    Mohammed Saleh Al-Qurashi — former employee, U.S. Embassy in Yemen
12.    Ali Ahmed Ali Abbas — Director-General, Office of the Minister of Education, Houthi administration
13.    Mohammed Ahmed Al-Kamali — employee, Moral Guidance Department, Houthi Ministry of Defense

Simultaneous Assault on Humanitarian Operations
These prosecutions coincide with an intensified campaign of abductions against international aid workers.

On 18–19 December 2025, the Houthis abducted 12 additional UN employees, raising the total number of kidnapped UN staff alone to approximately 72 — a dangerous development that transforms humanitarian work itself into a frontline target of political warfare.

Legal Classification: Crimes Against Humanity
Women Journalists Without Chains stressed that these actions constitute sham trials involving severe violations of the rights to liberty, personal security, and fair trial, while exposing detainees to imminent risk of arbitrary execution.

In their cumulative and systematic character, the organization warned, these acts amount to crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The violations further represent a grave breach of Articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and any death sentence issued on the basis of coerced confessions and such proceedings constitutes an unlawful and arbitrary execution under international law.

Urgent Call for International Action
Women Journalists Without Chains held the Houthi militia fully responsible for the safety and lives of all detainees and urged the United Nations, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the international community to take immediate and concrete action to:
•    Halt these prosecutions without delay
•    Secure the unconditional release of all arbitrarily detained persons
•    Prevent the implementation of any death sentences
•    Launch an independent and transparent international investigation to ensure accountability
The organization concluded that continued international silence or hesitation in the face of the instrumentalization of the judiciary for repression amounts to indirect complicity in these crimes and only emboldens the perpetrators to deepen their campaign of terror.