Yemen Houthi court condemns 30 to death for ‘spying’

Those sentenced have been Houthi custody for the past year. (File/AFP)

• The accused have been held in custody for the past 12 months
• The Houthis have issue a number of death sentences for spying allegations

SANAA: A court run by Yemen’s Houthi militia Tuesday sentenced 30 academics, trade unionists and preachers to death for allegedly spying for the Saudi-led coalition, a judicial source said.
The men, among 36 defendants tried by the criminal court in the rebel-held capital Sanaa, have been in custody for the past year, the source told AFP.
“The criminal court today (Tuesday) issued a verdict condemning 30 people to death on charges of spying for the aggression countries,” the source said, adding that the other six were acquitted.
He said the men were convicted of supplying the coalition with information on locations for air strikes.
The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015, a few months after the Iran-aligned Shiite Houthi rebels captured Sanaa.
The coalition backs the internationally-recognized government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
Since the Houthis took control of the capital in September 2014, their courts have issued several death sentences for spying.
In May last year, a Sanaa court sentenced two men to death for spying for Riyadh, while in January, the same court condemned to death 22-year old mother Asmaa Al-Omeissy and two men on charges of aiding the United Arab Emirates, a key partner in the coalition.
The sentences have not been carried out.
Yemen’s conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, many of them civilians, relief agencies say, and sparked what the UN terms the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with millions displaced and in need of aid.