Houthis execute 9 civilians over 2018 coalition killing of leader Al-Samad

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Six of the nine civilians convicted of involvement in a Houthi leader’s killing in 2018 are lined up before their public execution in Sanaa on Sept. 18, 2021. (AFP)
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Police troopers stand guard next to men convicted of involvement in the killing of Houthi official Saleh Al-Samad before their execution at Tahrir Square in Sanaa, Yemen Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. (AP)
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Updated 19 September 2021
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Houthis execute 9 civilians over 2018 coalition killing of leader Al-Samad

  • Al-Samad was visiting Hodeidah in April 2018 to incite residents to join the war when the coalition hit his convoy
  • The group were accused of putting SIM cards in the pockets of Al-Samad’s guards

AL-MUKALLA: The Iran-backed Houthi militia on Saturday publicly executed nine people charged with involvement in the killing of the militia’s leader Saleh Al-Samad in 2018.

The Houthi-controlled SABA news agency said on Saturday that “the Public Prosecution implemented the legal retribution verdict against nine people” who allegedly guided the Arab coalition warplanes that killed Al-Samad in the western province of Hodeidah.

The group, including a 17 year old, were accused of putting SIM cards in the pockets of Al-Samad’s guards, helping the coalition to locate the Houthi leader.

Al-Samad, then president of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, was visiting the western province of Hodeidah in April 2018 to incite residents to join the war when the coalition hit his convoy, killing him along with six other people, and inflicting a heavy blow to the Houthi movement.

New images published by Houthi officials show the nine civilians in blue clothes standing before a large gathering of people and soldiers before being shot in the back by machine guns, one by one. Each prisoner collapses on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs.

Among those executed was 17-year-old Abdulaziz Al-Aswad, who was arrested in Hodeidah in 2018 when he was 15.

The Houthis also executed Ali bin Ali Al-Qawzi, a tribal leader and local government official in Hodeidah. He was also abducted in 2018 and later transferred to Sanaa ,where he faced charges of sharing information with the Arab coalition that led to the killing of Al-Samad.

Yemeni lawyers told Arab News that the 10th alleged member of the abducted group, Ali Kazaba, died inside Houthi-controlled prisons as a result of brutal physical torture and medical negligence.

Before the execution, family members of the group sent urgent appeals to the Houthi leader to pardon them. Local and international activists also arranged online campaigns to pressure the rebels into canceling the execution.




Saleh Al-Samad .(File/AP)

“They do not have strong evidence that he is guilty. He is innocent,” one family member said of their relative in an appeal recorded beside the grave of Al-Samad in Sanaa.

Outraged Yemeni lawyers and human rights activists said that the executions were “based on unfounded charges and forced confessions” and that the nine were not granted a fair trial.

Abdel Majeed Sabra, a lawyer who defended three of the executed men, described the execution as “a massacre.”

He said that the relatives demanded the Houthis hand over the bodies for burials in Hodeidah.

“This is premeditated murder that has been legitimized by invalid rulings,” Sabra told Arab News.

Yemenis of different political affiliations have turned to social media to vent their anger over the executions.

Moammar Al-Eryani, Yemen’s minister of information, said that the nine men were subjected to “mock trials” and that “the Houthis were behaving like a terrorist organization.”

He said on Twitter: “Killing orders by Houthi militia against nine civilians are premeditated murders and a replication of the Iran regime’s model of liquidating political opponents. The event is also similar to executions by terrorist organizations Al-Qaeda and Daesh.”

The Geneva-based SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties said that the Houthis had carried out “extrajudicial executions against innocent Yemeni civilians.”

It accused the rebel group of seeking to “exterminate their political opponents.

“SAM affirms its opposition to the political death sentences and its condemnation of the brutal behavior of the Houthi group in killing innocent people in front of camera lenses and a large crowd of the public, and the publication of the execution video in the media.”

The human rights organization Rights Radar for Human Rights said that the executions amounted to war crimes: “We strongly condemn the Houthi rebels in Yemen who executed nine civilians based on false charges and unfair trials. It is considered a war crime.”


US believes Israel, Lebanon have agreed terms to end Israel-Hezbollah conflict

Updated 40 min 32 sec ago
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US believes Israel, Lebanon have agreed terms to end Israel-Hezbollah conflict

WASHINGTON: Israel and Lebanon have agreed to the terms of a deal to end the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, Axios reported on Monday citing an unnamed senior US official.
Israel’s government on Monday said it was moving toward a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah but there were still outstanding issues.


Arrest Warrant: UK would follow ‘due process’ if Netanyahu were to visit – foreign minister

Updated 51 min 52 sec ago
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Arrest Warrant: UK would follow ‘due process’ if Netanyahu were to visit – foreign minister

  • ICC issued arrest warrants on Thursday against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
  • Several EU states have said they will meet commitments under the statute if needed

FIUGGI: Britain would follow due process if Benjamin Netanyahu visited the UK, foreign minister David Lammy said on Monday, when asked if London would fulfil the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister.
“We are signatories to the Rome Statute, we have always been committed to our obligations under international law and international humanitarian law,” Lammy told reporters at a G7 meeting in Italy.
“Of course, if there were to be such a visit to the UK, there would be a court process and due process would be followed in relation to those issues.”
The ICC issued the warrants on Thursday against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri for alleged crimes against humanity.
Several EU states have said they will meet their commitments under the statute if needed, but Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has invited Netanyahu to visit his country, assuring him he would face no risks if he did so.
“The states that signed the Rome convention must implement the court’s decision. It’s not optional,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said during a visit to Cyprus for a workshop of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists.
Those same obligations were also binding on countries aspiring to join the EU, he said.

 

 


Turkiye man kills seven before taking his own life

Updated 25 November 2024
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Turkiye man kills seven before taking his own life

Istanbul: A 33-year-old Turkish man shot dead seven people in Istanbul on Sunday, including his parents, his wife and his 10-year-old son, before taking his own life, the authorities reported on Monday.
The man, who was found dead in his car shortly after the shooting, is also accused of wounding two other family members, one of them seriously, the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement.
The authorities, who had put the death toll at four on Sunday evening, announced on Monday the discovery near a lake on Istanbul’s European shore of the bodies of the killer’s wife and son, as well as the lifeless body of his mother-in-law.
According to the Small Arms Survey (SAS), a Swiss research program, over 13.2 million firearms are in circulation in Turkiye, most of them illegally, for a population of around 85 million.


2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

Updated 25 November 2024
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2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

  • The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night

Yabad: The Palestinian Authority said two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, were killed during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank village of Yabad.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night, leading to clashes during which soldiers shot dead two Palestinians.
The two dead were identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Muhammad Rabie Hamarsheh, 13, and Ahmad Mahmud Zaid, 20.
“Overnight, during an IDF (Israeli army) counterterrorism activity in the area of Yabad, two terrorists hurled explosives at IDF soldiers. The soldiers responded with fire and hits were identified,” an Israeli military source told AFP.
Last week, the Israeli army launched several raids in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing nine people, most of them Palestinian militants.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7 last year after Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 777 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.


Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

Updated 25 November 2024
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Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

  • The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday
  • Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army on Monday said it had struck a Hezbollah command center in the downtown Beirut neighborhood of Basta in a deadly air strike at the weekend.
“The IDF (Israeli military) struck a Hezbollah command center,” the army said regarding the strike that the Lebanese health ministry said killed 29 people and wounded 67 on Saturday.
The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday, leaving a large crater, AFP journalists at the scene reported.
A senior Lebanese security source said that “a high-ranking Hezbollah officer was targeted” in the strike, without confirming whether or not the official had been killed.
Hezbollah official Amin Cherri said no leader of the Lebanese movement was targeted in Basta.
Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign, later sending in ground troops against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The war followed nearly a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the Gaza war.
The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September this year.
On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.