Accused Face Death Penalty in Misuse of Espionage Charges
The Huthi de facto authorities in Yemen have sent at least eight people involved in human rights and humanitarian work for criminal prosecution, for espionage related charges punishable by death, since 18 August 2026, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. They include two United Nations employees, a UN consultant, and five people who worked with international and local civil society organizations on a range of issues, including health, human rights and humanitarian aid.
The Huthis should immediately halt these prosecutions and immediately and unconditionally release all eight people whose caes were sent for prosecution along with scores of other UN staff and civil society workers the Huthis have arbitrarily detained over the past two years.
The prosecution is the latest escalation in a crackdown by Huthi authorities on civil society in the part of Yemen they control, with successive waves of arrests of Yemenis targeting UN staff and civil society members since 31 May 2024. The Huthis have arbitrarily detained over 100 such staff and workers, holding them without charge and denying them access to lawyers and their families.
Many of the detentions started as
forcible disappearances
. An enforced disappearance happens when a person is deprived of liberty and their detention is denied or their situation or whereabouts concealed, placing them outside the protection of the law.
“As fighting once again escalates in Yemen, the Huthis have maliciously moved to prosecute at least eight UN and civil society workers on charges that could, if convicted, result in the death penalty,” said Diala Haidar, Yemen researcher at Amnesty International.
“Demanding the immediate release of Yemen’s UN and civil society workers should be a top priority for governments, and not an afterthought.”
Demanding the immediate release of Yemen’s UN and civil society workers should be a top priority for gov
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