Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) strongly condemned the killing of the Yemeni citizen Ahlam Ali Abdul Karim Al-Ashari, 29, while she was at home with her four children.
On Thursday, December 24, 2020, armed men of Al Houthi stormed the house of the victim, in Al-Aden Directorate, at dawn and killed her after brutally beating her.
Beaten to Death
According to eyewitnesses, Al-Houthi gunmen came looking for the victim’s husband, Mohamed Moqbel Al-Ashari, and when they could not find him they brutally attacked Ahlam, despite being pregnant, and severely beat her on different parts of her body, resulting in her death.
AOHR UK pointed out that this crime is added to the record of violations committed by Al-Houthi group, including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, tortures, enforced disappearances, and all sorts of heinous crimes against civilians, especially the most vulnerable groups including women, children, poor and marginalized citizens.
Brutal practices
AOHR UK stressed that utmost importance should be paid to the crime of killing Ahlam Al-Ashari, as it reveals the brutal and systematic practices of Al-Houthi militants against citizens, amid complete impunity, absence of the state, the spread of chaos, and silence of the international community.
Flagrant violations of human rights
Al-Houthi group resorts to torture and enforced disappearance to extract confessions from its opponents, as well as subjecting them to politicised trials in absence of the law and assassinations in areas under the control of its militias. It targets all segments of society, including civilians, dissidents, journalists, human rights activists, and humanitarian workers.
The lack of international oversight gives green light for all parties of the conflict in Yemen to destroy the country, escalate violence, creating chaos, and destroying any hope of establishing a just, independent state that guarantees all the rights of its people while respecting international humanitarian law.
Catastrophic conditions requiring urgent intervention
The tragic situation experienced by millions of Yemenis at home and abroad requires bringing an immediate end to the six-year war, which became international following the Saudi-Emirati intervention. The total siege imposed on Yemen, the spread of deadly epidemics, poverty reaching record levels, and an approaching famine; all of which require immediate urgent action to be taken.
AOHR UK called for forming a special committee to investigate all extrajudicial executions in Yemen, hold those responsible accountable, ensure that the perpetrators do not escape punishment, and to take the required measures to stop the ongoing executions outside the law.