Rights groups say Houthis referred detained UN staff for prosecution on capital charges
Yemen Herald News 
SANAA, Yemen — Houthi authorities have referred at least eight detained United Nations and civil society staff for prosecution on charges carrying the death penalty, two rights groups said Tuesday.
The referrals have taken place since 18 August, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a joint statement.
The charges are espionage and aiding the enemy, under articles 127 and 128 of Yemen’s penal code, the two groups said. Both carry a possible death sentence.
The cases are before the Specialized Criminal Prosecution in Sanaa, a court established in 1999.
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies said separately that at least six detainees had been referred to the same prosecution, and dated the referrals to August.
The two accounts differ on how many people have been referred. Yemen Herald could not reconcile the figures.
Sami Kallabi, 41, has been held since 6 June 2024, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said. They said he has cancer and had been undergoing chemotherapy.
The Cairo Institute said Kallabi has stage four stomach cancer and had been questioned six times since 25 August.
Labib Shayef, 57, has been held since the same day in June 2024, the two groups said. They said he has diabetes and hepatitis B.
The Cairo Institute said Shayef had been questioned before the court since 18 August.
Ali al-Mudhwahi, a consultant for UNICEF, was taken on 8 June 2024, the Cairo Institute said. It said he had been held more than 813 days, questioned more than six times since 24 August, and deprived of sleep.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said al-Mudhwahi had been held in solitary confinement and subjected to torture and psychological pressure.
UNICEF, which engaged al-Mudhwahi as a consultant, runs water, health and nutrition programmes across Yemen.
Houthi officials have accused detained United Nations employees of spying and of hostile activity. The United Nations has rejected those accusations.
The Cairo Institute said many detainees have been held without access to lawyers or contact with their families.
At least 73 United Nations staff were still held in February, according to United Nations figures cited in the joint statement.
More than 100 United Nations staff and civil society workers have been arbitrarily detained over two years, the two groups said.
The detentions began with raids on 31 May 2024 and continued through that June, according to the statement.
A World Food Programme employee died in Houthi custody on 11 February 2025, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said. The Cairo Institute said at least two humanitarian workers have died in custody since 2023.
The Cairo Institute also said Houthi authorities confiscated assets in January and that the World Food Programme suspended operations.
Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned the detention of United Nations personnel in Yemen on several occasions, and the organisation has reduced its operations in areas the Houthis control.
The Specialized Criminal Court and its prosecution service have been used against journalists and political detainees in Sanaa for years, and defendants there have limited access to lawyers, the Cairo Institute said.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called for the detainees to be released and for the charges to be dropped.
Human Rights Watch is based in New York and Amnesty International in London.
The reports were issued as fighting intensified in the south-west.
Yemen’s government announced an operation it calls Dawn of Yemen on Sunday, Al Jazeera reported. Government and allied forces have claimed the port of Mokha and the district of Dhubab in Taiz governorate, near the Bab al-Mandab strait.
A Houthi military spokesman said the group held its gains and described the government’s account as fabricated, Al Jazeera reported. Al Jazeera said it had not independently verified the extent of the claimed advances.
Saudi-led coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki said coalition forces struck Houthi weapons depots and stores for explosive boats and naval mines in Hodeidah governorate.
The World Health Organization has recorded at least 959 people killed and more than 4,200 wounded since the fighting resumed, Al Jazeera reported. The International Organization for Migration put the number displaced at more than 184,000.
The Houthis seized Sanaa in September 2014, and the Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015.
The United Nations brokered a two-month truce in April 2022. It was renewed twice and lapsed in October that year, and no nationwide ceasefire has been agreed since.
The United Nations special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said in March that Yemen could not again become an arena for regional escalation, and called for maximum restraint.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its March 2026 response plan that more than 22 million Yemenis need assistance and that 18.3 million are acutely food insecure.
OCHA put the number of internally displaced at 5.2 million and said more than 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished, 516,157 of them severely. The plan sought $2.16 billion to reach 12 million people.
Aid agencies have continued to work in Houthi-held areas, where most of Yemen’s population lives.
Dhubab district lies on the Red Sea coast of Taiz governorate, opposite the approaches to Bab al-Mandab, which links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
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