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24 Bahais could face death penalty in Yemen: Amnesty
DUBAI, Sept 18, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Twenty-four Yemenis, including a teenage
girl, could face the death penalty in the rebel-held capital Sanaa on charges
linked to their minority Bahai faith, Amnesty International said Tuesday.
The Bahais, among them eight women apart from the girl, face charges which
can carry the death penalty in Yemen, including espionage for a foreign
state, the London-based rights group said.
“We are seeing trumped up charges and flagrantly unfair proceedings used
to persecute Yemeni Bahais for their faith,” said Lynn Maalouf, head of
Middle East research at Amnesty.
“It is particularly abhorrent that some of these men and women could face
the death penalty for their conscientiously held beliefs and peaceful
activities.”
Maalouf called for their immediate release, adding that the Iran-backed
Huthis should drop the “bogus” charges and “end their abuse of the justice
system”.
Rights groups have warned the Huthis have cracked down on minorities and
journalists in the rebel-held capital since 2015, a year after the rebels
drove the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi out of Sanaa.
The Bahai faith, which has an estimated seven million followers worldwide,
emerged in the second half of the 19th century.
The movement is named after Bahaullah, an Iranian born in 1817 whom the
Bahais believe is the latest prophet sent by God.
Iran and other states consider the Bahais heretics and suspect many of
espionage for Israel, home to a Bahai centre in the northern city of Haifa.
Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the Yemeni government’s fight against
the Huthis in 2015, triggering a conflict that has killed nearly 10,000
people and what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1808 hrs