Cairo - The US commission on international religious freedom has denounced Yemen’s Al Houthi militia for charging 24 Baha’is, including women and a teenager, with espionage and apostasy.
According to a statement Monday by the USCIRF, a court in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, controlled by Al Houthi rebels, charged the Baha’is on September 15 and put them on trial for apostasy and espionage, which carry the death penalty.
“This persecution on the basis of religious identity is unconscionable and must stop immediately,” said Tenzin Dorjee, USCIRF chairman, urging for the “unconditional release and dropping of all charges” against the Baha’is.
Abdullah Al Olfi, a spokesman for the Baha’i community in Yemen, said only five of the defendants are in custody while the rest are being tried in absentia.
The prosecutors have not offered any evidence to support their claims, Al Olfi said Tuesday. The next court session in the case is on November 10.
Al Olfi was himself detained for three days earlier this month, USCIRF said.
Yemeni Baha’is have faced a surge in arrests, raids on their homes and offices, and forced closures of their community organisations since 2017, USCIRF said.
The commission also decried the death sentence against a top Baha’i figure on charges of collaboration with Israel. Hamid Bin Haydara was arrested in December 2013 and sentenced this January. Dorjee said the USCIRF calls on Al Houthis to annul the death sentence against Bin Haydara.
Minority Baha’is observe a monotheistic religion founded in the 1860s by Baha’u’llah, a Persian nobleman considered their prophet.
