Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) has called on the US judicial authorities to open an urgent and in-depth investigation into the serious crimes revealed in the BBC documentary published on Tuesday, January 23, which exposed the involvement of an American security company in the assassination of Yemeni activists and political thinkers as well as training military units to carry out extrajudicial executions in Yemen.
The film was based on an investigation conducted by a BBC team, which carried out press interviews with American mercenary officers, military officers from Yemen, and a number of journalists and eyewitnesses, all of whom confirmed being recruited by the Emirati regime to assassinate opponents of the Emirates.
The investigation documentary started with leaked video footage showing the attempted targeting and failed assassination of one of the leaders of the Yemeni Islah Party in Aden, Ansaf Mayo. The documentary revealed that the assassination was carried out by the American security company “Spear Operations Group”, headed by the Israeli citizen Abraham Golan, after a deal was concluded with the Emirati regime to carry out assassinations of opponents and train Emirati military units who in turn would train Yemeni members of the Southern Transitional Council.
The documentary showed that about 160 operations were carried out whether by the American company, the Emiratis, or their affiliates in the Southern Transitional Council. It also revealed that most of the targets were civilians or political leaders opposed to the UAE’s policies in Yemen.
It is worth noting that Abraham Golan, founder of the Spear Operation Group, is a military expert and a former Israeli Mossad agent who agreed with Isaac Gilmore, a former soldier in the US Navy, on the terms of the deal with the Emirates, with a cost of $1.5 million per month, in addition to incentives for every successful operation.
The crimes committed by Spear Operations Group mercenaries in Yemen violated two US federal criminal laws; the War Crimes Act (18 U.S.C. 2441), which criminalises any American citizen committing violations of international humanitarian law, including murder and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, mutilation or maim, or Injury in a foreign country, and the law (18 U.S.C. 956) which criminalises conspiring to kill a person in a foreign country.
AOHR UK called on the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Attorney General’s Office in the United States of America to open an investigation with the American security company Spear Operations Group, and to prosecute the people whose names were mentioned in the film as mercenaries of the Emirati regime.
AOHR UK also highlighted the importance of the United States assuming its responsibility to ensure the compliance of its citizens and companies registered on its territory with the law, stressing that failure to hold those involved accountable represents a disregard for justice and undermines the principle of the rule of law.
