Thirteen people accused of homosexuality have been sentenced to death in Yemen by a court in a region controlled by Houthi rebels, a judicial source told AFP on Tuesday.
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The trial took place in Ibb, a province near Iran controlled by these insurgents, whose attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden disrupt global maritime traffic.
In total, 16 people were in the dock, so three of them were sentenced to prison, according to the judicial source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.
Thirty-five other people were recently arrested in Ibb for similar reasons, she added.
In videos sent to AFP, the authenticity of which could not be independently verified, we see a judge in court listing the allegations against the defendant, including homosexuality, modesty, “incitement to debauchery” and “dissemination of images that are against the good Violate customs.” before they were publicly sentenced to death.
The verdict can be appealed.
The Houthis, who control Yemen's most populous areas after nearly a decade of war against the government, do not always carry out the death penalty.
According to a report published in 2022 by the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights, 350 death sentences have been imposed in rebel-held areas since the Houthis captured the capital in 2014, of which 11 were carried out.
“The Houthis are committing ever-increasing human rights abuses in their country while the world is busy watching their attacks in the Red Sea,” criticized Niku Jafarnia, Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch.
In December, Yemeni human rights activist Fatima Saleh Al-Arwali was sentenced to death for espionage in the capital Sanaa.
She was accused of passing information to the United Arab Emirates, members of the Saudi-led military coalition that has backed government forces since 2015.
Descended from the Zaidi minority, a branch of Shiite Islam, the Houthis have imposed very strict social and religious rules in the regions they control, particularly targeting women.