Outcry as Houthis put prominent judge on trial over ‘fake news’

Outcry as Houthis put prominent judge on trial over ‘fake news’
In February, the Houthis’ Supreme Judicial Council stripped Qatran of immunity and ordered that he be punished for breaking the law. (File)
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Updated 27 May 2024
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Outcry as Houthis put prominent judge on trial over ‘fake news’

Outcry as Houthis put prominent judge on trial over ‘fake news’
  • Militia actions that ignore people’s basic rights draw widespread condemnation

AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s Houthi militia are preparing to prosecute Abdul Wahab Qatran, a prominent and outspoken judge, on charges of denigrating their leader and publishing false news, a Sanaa-based lawyer told Arab News on Monday. 

Abdul Majeed Sabra, a Yemeni lawyer, said that the Houthi-run Specialized Criminal Prosecution in Sanaa will begin questioning Qatran on Tuesday after the Houthi security and intelligence service referred him to the court, accusing him of disseminating rumors, fake news, and inflammatory information about the militia’s leaders.

“The case has been sent to the prosecution for further investigation tomorrow. If he is brought in, the prosecution will investigate and either submit him to trial by indictment or rule that there is no grounds for initiating a case, which means he will be released,” Sabra said. 

Armed Houthis surrounded and broke into Qatran’s home in Sanaa in January, destroying personal documents and furnishings. 

The judge was abducted and taken to a security and intelligence agency detention center, where he was held in solitary confinement without access to medical care, a lawyer, or contact with his family. 

Qatran was eventually allowed to call his family, who reported that he had been secluded and was “dying” as a result of isolation. 

The judge was seized after criticizing the Houthis for human rights violations and failing to pay public workers. Shortly before his abduction he voiced sympathy for a journalist who was attacked and beaten by the militia in Sanaa.

In February, the Houthis’ Supreme Judicial Council stripped Qatran of immunity and ordered that he be punished for breaking the law.

His captors refused repeated requests from his family to visit him and provide him with his medications.

News that the Houthis were planning to try Qatran provoked an outcry from Yemeni activists and international rights groups, which demanded that the militia halt the prosecution and release him. 

The Geneva-based SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties on Monday called the trial a “dangerous development,” and accused the Houthis of attempting to suppress the last outspoken citizens who live in regions under their control.

SAM said it “considers the Houthi group solely accountable for Judge Qatran’s safety and urges them to free him immediately.”

In a statement, it also called on the militia to “stop its actions that infringe people’s fundamental rights, particularly freedom of thought and speech.”

Meanwhile, the US Central Command said that its forces destroyed a drone launched by the Houthis over the Red Sea early on Sunday, the latest in a series of clashes between the Houthis and the US-led marine coalition.

The militia have not claimed to have struck any ships in international waters off Yemen or in the Indian Ocean in the last 48 hours.

Since November, the Houthis have seized a commercial ship in the Red Sea, sunk another in the same shipping lane, and fired hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at international commercial and naval ships.

The militia claims its actions are in support of Palestinians under attack by Israel in Gaza.

At the same time, the UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement said on Sunday that four land mine explosions killed two civilians and injured four in April in three districts of the Red Sea province of Hodeidah.

This takes the total number of civilian casualties from land mines to 34, with 13 killed since the beginning of the year.

Human Rights Watch said last week that thousands of land mines laid by the Houthis continue to kill and maim people throughout Yemen. 

Explosive devices also “poison fields,” leaving farmland unusable, it said.


Zelensky says arrived in Turkiye for talks with Erdogan

Zelensky says arrived in Turkiye for talks with Erdogan
Updated 6 sec ago
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Zelensky says arrived in Turkiye for talks with Erdogan

Zelensky says arrived in Turkiye for talks with Erdogan

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday he had arrived in Turkiye for talks with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on prisoner exchanges and other matters.
“Official visit with the First Lady to Turkiye. Meetings with President Erdogan and First Lady Emine Erdogan,” Zelensky said on his Telegram account. The visit came as US and Russian officials geared up for high-profile talks in Saudi Arabia without Kyiv’s presence.
 

 


In first, French minister visits Western Sahara claimed by Morocco

In first, French minister visits Western Sahara claimed by Morocco
Updated 18 min 31 sec ago
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In first, French minister visits Western Sahara claimed by Morocco

In first, French minister visits Western Sahara claimed by Morocco
  • Algeria has backed the separatist Polisario Front and had already cut diplomatic relations with Rabat in 2021 — the year after Morocco normalized ties with Israel under a deal that awarded it US recognition of its annexation of the Western Sahara

LAAYOUNE: France’s Culture Minister Rachida Dati became on Monday the first French official to make a formal visit to the Western Sahara, a sign of Paris’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory.
“This is the first time that a French minister has come to the southern provinces,” Dati told AFP, using Morocco’s name for the area, a former Spanish colony controlled by Rabat but claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.
Dati described the visit as “historic.”
The United Nations considers Western Sahara a “non-self-governing territory” and has had a peacekeeping mission there since 1991, whose stated aim is to organize a referendum on the territory’s future.
But Rabat has repeatedly rejected any vote in which independence is an option, instead proposing autonomy under Morocco.
Dati, accompanied by Moroccan Culture Minister Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid, launched a French cultural mission in Laayoune, Western Sahara’s main city.
She promised to open the territory’s first French culture center to “benefit children in the region, but also teachers, schools, students and teacher trainers.”
In Dakhla, the Western Sahara’s second city some 530 kilometers (330 miles) south of Laayoune, Dati said she is set to sign a cooperation agreement in the field of cinema and audiovisual art.
France’s stance on Western Sahara has been ambiguous in recent years, often straining ties between Rabat and Paris.
But in July, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Morocco’s autonomy plan was the “only basis” to resolve the Western Sahara dispute.
The turnabout marked by Macron’s statement drew a strong reaction from Algiers.
Algeria has backed the separatist Polisario Front and had already cut diplomatic relations with Rabat in 2021 — the year after Morocco normalized ties with Israel under a deal that awarded it US recognition of its annexation of the Western Sahara.
Macron renewed French support for Morocco’s plan in October, pledging investments and a “strong and exceptional partnership.”
Also in October, the UN Security Council called for parties to “resume negotiations” to reach a “lasting and mutually acceptable solution” for the Western Sahara dispute.
 

 


Israel minister says Hamas must leave Gaza, surrender arms

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel should go for a “complete conquest” of Gaza. (File/AFP)
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel should go for a “complete conquest” of Gaza. (File/AFP)
Updated 29 min 32 sec ago
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Israel minister says Hamas must leave Gaza, surrender arms

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel should go for a “complete conquest” of Gaza. (File/AFP)
  • “If Hamas refuses this ultimatum, Israel will open the gates of hell,” said Smotrich, echoing an expression used by both Trump and Netanyahu

JERUSALEM: Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday that Hamas militants must surrender their arms and leave Gaza.
He was speaking ahead of a cabinet meeting to discuss the next phase of the truce between Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants.
Smotrich in a video statement said he “will demand a vote” by ministers on US President Donald Trump’s plan and that Israel must “issue a clear ultimatum to Hamas — immediately release all hostages, leave Gaza for other countries, and lay down your arms.”
“If Hamas refuses this ultimatum, Israel will open the gates of hell,” said Smotrich, echoing an expression used by both Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A strong opponent of stopping the war, he has threatened to quit Netanyahu’s ruling coalition if the war is not resumed after the end of the first stage of the ceasefire.
Trump’s plan lacked detail but has triggered widespread outrage internationally for his call to resettle Palestinians in other countries such as Egypt and Jordan under a US “takeover” of Gaza.
Smotrich said Israel should go for a “complete conquest” of the territory.
According to Israeli media, the security cabinet convened on Monday evening to discuss phase two of the fragile ceasefire which began on January 19.
More than 15 months of war destroyed or damaged more than 69 percent of Gaza’s buildings, displaced almost the entire population, and triggered widespread hunger, according to the United Nations.
“It’s them or us. Either we crush Hamas, or God forbid, Hamas will crush us,” Smotrich said.
“I call on the prime minister to declare that once the war resumes after Phase One, Israel will, from the first day, seize 10 percent of Gaza’s territory, establish full sovereignty there, and immediately apply Israeli law,” he added.
“Furthermore, it must be announced that once combat resumes, all humanitarian aid will be completely halted.”
Smotrich further said that according to a plan currently in preparation “Gaza’s residents will be allowed to leave, but only in one direction — with no possibility of return.”
“The loss of territory is the only heavy price our enemies understand — the only thing that will make them realize we are serious,” Smotrich added.
Since the first phase of the truce began last month, 19 Israeli hostages have been released in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners.
Out of 251 people seized in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, 70 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.


King Abdullah reaffirms Jordan’s stance on Palestinian cause, rejects displacement and resettlement

King Abdullah reaffirms Jordan’s stance on Palestinian cause, rejects displacement and resettlement
Updated 17 February 2025
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King Abdullah reaffirms Jordan’s stance on Palestinian cause, rejects displacement and resettlement

King Abdullah reaffirms Jordan’s stance on Palestinian cause, rejects displacement and resettlement
  • Was speaking at Royal Hashemite Court during meeting with military retirees on the occasion of Veterans Day

AMMAN: King Abdullah II on Monday reiterated Jordan’s stance on the Palestinian cause, rejecting any form of displacement, resettlement, or the establishment of an alternative homeland, the Jordan News Agency reported.

Speaking at the Royal Hashemite Court during a meeting with military retirees on the occasion of Veterans Day and accompanied by his son Crown Prince Hussein, the king reaffirmed his long-standing position.

“For 25 years, I have been saying no to displacement, no to resettlement, no to the alternative homeland,” the king said.

Despite ongoing regional challenges, the king said he remained optimistic, attributing his conviction to the support of Jordanians, the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army, security agencies, and retired military personnel. He also praised veterans, acknowledging their continued readiness to serve the nation.

King Abdullah reflected on his recent visit to Washington, where he emphasized Jordan’s commitment to maintaining stability and protecting national interests during a meeting with US President Donald Trump.

He stressed the importance of reconstructing Gaza without displacing its residents and called for efforts to de-escalate tensions in the West Bank.

Reaffirming Jordan’s commitment to a just and lasting peace, the king underscored that a two-state solution remained the only viable path to stability in the region.

Maj. Gen. Ismail Al-Shobaki, speaking on behalf of the military retirees, praised King Abdullah’s leadership and commitment to Jordanian interests, as well as his support for Arab allies, particularly the Palestinian people.


Israel preparing to receive bodies of four hostages on Thursday, security official says

Israel preparing to receive bodies of four hostages on Thursday, security official says
Updated 17 February 2025
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Israel preparing to receive bodies of four hostages on Thursday, security official says

Israel preparing to receive bodies of four hostages on Thursday, security official says
JERUSALEM: Israel is preparing to receive the bodies of four hostages from Gaza on Thursday and is working on bringing back six living captives on Saturday, an Israeli security official said on Monday.
If the two handovers are successful, only four hostages, all presumed dead, would remain in Gaza of the 33 due to be released in the first phase of a ceasefire agreement reached last month to halt the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The ceasefire deal, reached with the help of Qatari and Egyptian mediators, has remained on track despite a series of temporary setbacks and accusations on both sides of violations to the agreement that have threatened to derail it.
Hamas has accused Israel of blocking the delivery of housing materials for the tens of thousands of Gazans forced to shelter from the winter weather among the ruins left by 15 months of Israeli bombardment.
Israel has denied the accusation but Zeev Elkin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, confirmed that a quantity of mobile homes was standing at the border.
He said Israel would use “any leverage” it had over Hamas to secure the return of the 33 hostages due to come out in the first phase of the deal, which includes the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
“Israel has a goal of bringing forward the release of the first phase hostages, certainly the living ones,” he told public broadcaster Kansas
So far, 19 Israeli hostages have been returned, as well as five Thais, who were handed over in an unscheduled release. Hamas has said 25 of the 33 hostages due for release in the first phase are alive.
The ceasefire deal has been overshadowed by US President Donald Trump’s call for Palestinians to be moved out and for Gaza to be taken over as a waterfront development under US control.
But officials say work has begun on the second phase of the deal, which would would address the return of the remaining hostages and the Israeli withdrawal.
An Israeli team has already traveled to Cairo and the security cabinet also cleared a high-level Israeli delegation to travel to Qatar for talks on the second phase.
“We all want to proceed to phase two and release the hostages, the question is under what conditions is the war ended,” Elkin said. “This is the main issue for the negotiations of the second phase.”
The hostages were taken in the Hamas-led cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which also killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, laid waste to much of the enclave, and displaced hundreds of thousands.