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The Houthi rebels arrested dozens of people in late September for "peacefully celebrating" the anniversary of the establishment of the Yemen Arab Republic, as the insurgents believe that the day they took Sana'a should be commemorated, Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced this Monday.
The organization said in a statement that these arrests are common in recent years, as the Houthis believe that the national day is September 21 - when in 2014 they took the capital of Yemen - instead of September 26, which commemorates the establishment of the Republic in 1962.
Faced with this situation, HRW called on the Houthis to "immediately" release all those detained "solely for exercising their right to freedom of assembly and expression, as well as all others who remain in arbitrary detention, including the dozens of UN officials and civil society members arrested and disappeared during the last year and a half."
Among those arrested are dozens of activists, such as the writer and satirist Oras al Eryani; the renowned lawyer Abdul Majeed Sabra; or Aref Mohammed Qatran and Abdulsalam Qatran, brother and nephew, respectively, of Judge Abdulwahab Qatran.
"Many of them have not been able to contact their families or a lawyer, and the authorities have refused to inform their families about the whereabouts of their relatives, which constitutes an enforced disappearance," said HRW.
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He also recalled that arresting a person without a warrant or clear charges constitutes a violation of Article 132 of the Yemeni Criminal Procedure Law, and that doing so without immediately charging them also goes against international human rights law. "Houthi authorities have also arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared dozens of UN officials and civil society members since May 31, 2024. More recently, on August 31, the Houthis detained another 19 UN officials," HRW recalled.
