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Prominent human rights lawyer Abdulmajeed Sabra confirmed to the Gulf Centre for Human Rights that the case file of woman human rights defender Fatima Saleh Al-Arwali, against whom a death sentence was issued, has been submitted by the Specialised Criminal Court of First Instance in Sana’a to the Specialised Criminal Prosecution. The Court will summon her soon to hear whether she will appeal the initial ruling issued against her. If she decides to maintain her previous position of accepting the ruling, her case will be referred to the Supreme Court. However, if she decides not to accept the ruling, the procedures for appealing the ruling issued against her will begin. On 5th December 2023, the Specialised Criminal Court of First Instance in Sana’a issued a discretionary death penalty (Ta’zir) against Al-Arwali after convicting her on arbitrary charges made in apparent retaliation for her human rights work, including defending women’s and children’s rights.
On 13th June 2024, security forces affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council, supported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), arbitrarily arrested photojournalist Saleh Al-Obaidi, and detained him at Dar Saad police station in the city of Aden. He was released the next day, after a widespread solidarity campaign supporting him was carried out by press institutions and citizens on social media networks. Al-Obaidi works as a photographer for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in addition to local media organisations.
On 28th May 2024, the Specialised Criminal Court in Aden issued a four-year prison sentence against 29 year old journalist Ahmed Maher, after convicting him on the charges brought against him by the Specialised Criminal Prosecution, which includes two counts of spreading false and misleading news and forging official documents. His lawyer has announced an appeal of this ruling against him. On 6th August 2022, Maher was arrested by armed men affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council after they stormed his house. He was detained at Dar Saad police station, where he was interrogated and subjected to torture and ill-treatment during his interrogation sessions. He was arrested along with his brother Mayas Maher, who was also subjected to torture and ill-treatment and was not released until 19th October 2022, despite having committed no crime,. His brother Mayas was used as a tool to increase pressure on him to confess to crimes he did not commit.
Separately, according to Amnesty International, Moujib al-Mikhlafi, a Yemeni education expert and trainer, has been arbitrarily detained by the Huthi de facto authorities since 10th October 2023 in Sana’a, Yemen. Following his arrest, he was forcibly disappeared for 21 days and held incommunicado for over a month at the Huthi-run security and intelligence detention centre in Sana’a, where he remains to date. He is held without charge and is denied his right to legal counsel.
in positive developments, on 12th June 2024, retired Judge Abdulwahab Qatran was released, and the case against him closed. Informed local sources confirmed that he has not yet received his electronic devices, which are being held by the Security and Intelligence Service in Sana’a, and thus he is still unable to access his accounts on social media networks. As previously documented, the Houthi group arrested Qatran in early January 2024, a day after he posted on his X account declaring solidarity with a journalist who had been assaulted. He was subjected to enforced disappearance for three days and held for a long period of his detention in a solitary confinement cell at the Security and Intelligence Service and prevented from communicating with his family and lawyer.