Houthi court issues order to seize ex-president Saleh's property

Houthi supporters in Sanaa in December 2017. Houthi-affiliated officials are seizing property owned by Yemen's slain ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh and his relatives. Yahya Arhab / EPA

Houthi-affiliated officials on Wednesday began seizing property owned by Yemen's slain ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh and his relatives.

On Tuesday a Houthi-run court issued an order to confiscate Saleh's properties in Sanaa, Haja and Hodeidah.

"In the morning a team sent by the higher Houthi authorities visited all the property owned by Saleh and his relatives in Sanaa, they wrote on the walls of his houses and his sons' houses as well as the houses [that] belong to his nephews and cousins," Taher Al-Hatef, a lawyer and the chairman of anti-corruption agency Awtad, told The National.

The order calls for the seizure of all institutions affiliated with Saleh, including banks, government buildings, private companies and charitable organisations, as well as the headquarters of media outlets.

Meanwhile Houthi rebels in Taez are struggling to keep their heads above water, following the Yemeni army's offensive on the province in January.

The director of the Moral Guidance department in the Taez military region, Colonel Abdulbaset Al Baher, said that high-ranking Houthi commander Abu Taha Al Ghoulaisi was killed alongside four other militants on Tuesday when the Yemeni army shelled a mountain northwest of Taez city centre.

Commander Al Ghoulaisi had received intensive military training by Iran between 2010 and 2013, according to Col. Al Baher.

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