General Update
On 28th January 2025, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) issued a periodic report on Yemen documenting human rights violations over the preceding months. The violations were committed by various parties involved in the current conflict, including arbitrary arrests of a number of United Nations employees, as well as ongoing violations of the civil and human rights of citizens, including journalists.
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GCHR’s concerns about the repression of civil society and the obstruction of humanitarian aid in Yemen were echoed by Human Rights Watch in its World Report 2025.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned the arbitrary detention on 23rd January 2025 by the de facto government in the capital Sana’a - the Houthi group - of seven additional UN staff working in areas under its control. The UN Secretary-General issued a statement the day after their arrest, which also said, “I demand the immediate and unconditional release of those detained on Thursday, as well as the personnel from the United Nations, international and national non-governmental organisations, civil society and diplomatic missions arbitrarily detained since June 2024 and those held since 2021 and 2023. Their continued arbitrary detention is unacceptable.” The UN subsequently announced the suspension of all official movements to and within areas under the control of the de facto authorities in Sana’a until further notice.
On 4th February 2025, 24 NGOs issued a joint statement on Yemen led by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, which said, “Houthi de facto authorities should immediately release at least eight UN staff who were arbitrarily detained between 23rd and 25th January 2025, as well as dozens of staff from UN agencies and Yemeni and international civil society organisations who continue to be arbitrarily detained since May 2024.”
On 12th February 2025, Amnesty International reported that one of the detained UN humanitarian workers had died in custody after being arbitrarily arrested on 23rd January 2025. The name of the staff member has not been officially released.
Previously in June 2024, the Houthis detained 13 UN staff, including six from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as more than 50 workers from various NGOs and an embassy employee. They have also been holding two other UN staff from November 2021 and August 2023, in addition to two other UN staff who were detained earlier. The Houthis have accused them of being part of a spy network, something the UN has denied.
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GCHR further reported on the case of online activist Fawzi Ahmed Obaid who was arbitrarily arrested on 7th September 2015 in Sana’a by an armed group affiliated with the Houthi group, who took him to an unknown location. His family tried to search for him with the security forces, including the Criminal Investigation Bureau, but to no avail.
Nearly 10 years into his detention, his family members, including his elderly mother, have not been allowed to visit him, despite orders issued by the Public Prosecution and the Specialised Criminal Court to allow them to do so. All of the family’s repeated requests submitted to the competent authorities to allow them to visit him or refer his case to court were met with refusal. Some recently-released detainees have confirmed that Obaid is in a dungeon in an underground cell in a prison run by the Security and Intelligence Service in Sana’a. Local reports confirmed that the reason for his arrest was due to writings he published on his Facebook account, which were deleted after his arrest and the confiscation of his phone.
On 18th January 2025, journalist Ahmed Maher posted the following on his Facebook page:
“Two and a half years of injustice! Thanks to God Almighty, I left the Security Belt Prison in Aden, Bir Ahmed Prison, this morning, with my acquittal verdict after two and a half years of injustice! I was kidnapped, tortured, forced to make false statements, threatened with my family, they abused me on their channels and pages, they stole my money and electronic devices, they fabricated a false criminal charge against me, an unjust verdict was issued against me…. and God showed my innocence in the Specialised Criminal Court of Appeal in Aden.”
On 25th December 2024, the Specialised Criminal Court of Appeal in Aden acquitted him after the Specialised Criminal Court had previously sentenced him to four years in prison, after an unfair trial where he was convicted of publishing false and misleading news, and forging official documents. For more information on his case, see here.
GCHR has further received reports of the execution of journalist Mohammed Qaid Al-Maqri by the so-called Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula organisation, which confirmed in a statement published on 29th December 2024 that it had executed him along with 11 other individuals accused of alleged espionage. However, his family rejected the claims in an explanatory statement issued on 2nd January 2025, saying that they had serious doubts about the veracity of the announcement, including that he was even executed.
GCHR also highlighted the cases of a number of journalists who remain behind bars after many years including Waheed Mohammad Naji Haider Al-Sufi, Nabil Al-Sadawi, Fahd Yahya Al-Arhabi, Mohammed Dabwan Al-Mayahy and Naseh Shaker.
Finally, on 11th January 2025, educator Fahd Abdullah Mohammed Al-Salami was released after nearly 10 years in detention. He was arrested on 6th October 2015. This was part of an exchange of prisoners where he arrived in the city of Marib, which is under the control of the internationally-recognised government, coming from Sana’a. He was working as the director of Al-Nahda schools before his arrest. However, on 22nd October 2024, the family of education expert Mohammed Khammash received a call from officials of the Security and Intelligence Service prison asking them to come and receive his body without disclosing the circumstances of his death. On 6th June 2024, he was arrested with a number of his colleagues working on developing educational curricula, and they were charged with “spying for foreign entities.”