Houthi judicial farce puts Baha’i lives at risk in Yemen

Houthi judicial farce puts Baha’i lives at risk in Yemen

Arabic translation.

Sana’a, Yemen. Photo credit: UNDP Yemen
Sana’a, Yemen. Photo credit: UNDP Yemen
Geneva—4 February 2021

Yemen’s Houthi authorities—who have harassed the country’s Baha’i religious minority since taking power in the capital Sana’a, in 2014—continue to intimidate and endanger the lives of Baha’is while also seeking to appropriate their properties. In the latest development, nineteen Baha’is are being summoned before a Houthi court for the resumption of their trial, and will be branded as fugitives if they do not appear.

If they do appear, these nineteen will in all likelihood be convicted of the baseless charges leveled against them because of their Bahai beliefs, which include “showing kindness” and “displaying rectitude of conduct”, and then jailed and subjected to mistreatment.

“What is happening to these nineteen people is an all too familiar outrageous occurrence,” said Diane Ala’i, the Baha’i International Community’s (BIC) Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, referring to the fate of six other Yemeni Baha’is in previous years. The six were arrested between 2013 and 2017 and jailed and tortured, before a UN-backed campaign eventually secured their release in July 2020 on the condition that they be deported from Yemen. The Houthis then branded them “fugitives” despite having forced their exile.

As part of the court summons, the authorities are expected to publish the names of the nineteen in the media, directly endangering their lives in a context where violence against the Baha’is has been publicly encouraged. 

“The choice is grim. The nineteen Baha’is can either present themselves at trial and face unjust prison sentences or be branded as fugitives. In both cases, their lives will be at risk,” Ms. Ala’i added.

The BIC also fears that the Houthis are using the charges against the Baha’is to continue confiscating their assets and properties. 

“The longer the Houthis continue to persecute the Baha’is, the more obvious it is that they are harassing them just to run them out of the country and to rob them of their assets and properties—a pattern which is reminiscent of the persecution experienced by the Baha’is in Iran,” said Ms. Ala’i.

“Yemen has been in turmoil for years,” noted Ms. Ala’i, “and peace and prosperity will remain elusive as long as freedom of religion and belief is not upheld. Harmonious coexistence has long been a Yemeni value. The Houthis must accept this.”

During the National Dialogue Conference, before taking power in 2013-2014, the Houthis had supported a separation of the state from Yemen's religious authorities and pledged to support civil liberties and religious freedom.