A Houthi court in Sanaa has sentenced to death 35 Yemeni MPs who support the internationally recognised government, lawyers in the occupied city told The National on Wednesday.
The rebel-controlled Specialised Criminal Court sentenced the parliamentarians, including the house Speaker Sultan Al Barakani, in their absence for backing the government and supporting the intervention of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition seeking to restore the administration of President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi.
A lawyer said the court also confiscated the MPs' property inside and outside Yemen.
Abdulbaset Ghazi, another lawyer for some of the accused, wrote in a Facebook post that the judge postponed the session on Tuesday but returned to the courtroom an hour later and handed down the verdicts.
Deputy speaker Abdulaziz Jubari is also among and MPs, many of whom are working for the government as provincial governors and ambassadors, or are tribal leaders partnered with the Hadi administration.
The Houthi rebels ousted the government in Sanaa in late 2014 after battling their way from their tribal homeland in the north. Mr Hadi and the government fled to Aden and then to Riyadh, and the Arab Coalition intervened to push the Iran-backed militant group back.
Mr Hadi’s administration condemned the illegal and baseless trial saying that they consider the move a ploy to loot the properties of the Yemeni officials in Sanaa and steal their homes and possessions.
"Such verdicts are illegal and baseless because it is issued by an illegal court controlled by the Houthi group," Mohammed Askar, the Yemeni Minister of Human Rights, told The National.
“The Houthi rebels hold such illegal trials to terrorize their political opponents and to loot their private possessions, so these trials are unlawful and a matter of nonsense."
Independent Yemeni lawyers also said the verdict was politically motivated and the court was unlawful as it is controlled by the militant group.
"It is obviously clear that the verdict is illegal and meaningless because it was issued by an illegal court controlled by an illegal authority," lawyer Hani Al Aswadi, head of the My Right Centre for Human Rights and Freedoms, told The National.
“This verdict comes as a continuation for the violations practised by the Houthi militia in Yemen, which illegally controls the judicial system in northern Yemen.
"Additionally, the indictment submitted by the public prosecution is also a political rather than legal one.
“The continuous silence by international bodies over the Houthi violations against the international humanitarian law and human rights law will encourage them to commit further violations."
It comes as Houthi rebels increased their harassment of Yemeni pro-government officials after a Parliament session was held in Sayoun city, Hadramawt province, in April last year.
The Houthis have raided and confiscated the homes of dozens of MPs since.
