Yemen: 11 Baha’is Forcibly Disappeared At Great Risk

Since 2015, Amnesty International has documented the situation of 82 members of the Baha’i community in Yemen who have been detained by the Huthi de facto authorities and subjected to enforced disappearance, torture, incommunicado detention or denied the right to a fair trial. 

Five Baha’is arrested in  were held without charge or trial and without any means to challenge their detention for over two years, until they were charged in September 2018 with various serious offences including espionage for foreign states, some of which can carry the death penalty. Their trial was part of a mass trial involving 24 Baha’is in total – the other 19 were charged in absentia, including the teenage daughter of a Baha’i detainee. The Huthi de facto authorities ordered the release of all Baha’i prisoners in 2020 on the condition of their exile from the country. However, the charges against the 24 Baha’is have not been lifted.

A Baha’i prisoner of conscience, Hamid Haydara, was released in 2020 after his initial arrest in 2013. He was sentenced to death in 2018, and then pardoned in 2020. Amnesty International raised its concerns with the  Huthi de facto authorities regarding the basis for his detention, as well as the deeply-flawed legal proceedings in his case, including prolonged pre-trial detention, undue delays in his trial, torture and other ill-treatment, and lack of access to counsel during his interrogations.

All parties to the armed conflict taking place in Yemen, including the Huthi forces, the internationally recognized government, the Sothern Transitional Council, Saudi Arabia led coalition and UAE-backed Yemeni forces have committed crimes under international law and human rights violations, including wilful killings, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment, and unfair trials.