Click to expand Image A United Nations team visits with officials of Yemen's Supervisory Committee in Al Hudaydah province, Yemen, May 17, 2023. © 2023 Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images (Beirut) – The Houthi de facto authorities in Yemen have sent at least eight people involved in human rights and humanitarian work for criminal prosecution, on espionage-related charges punishable by death, since August 18, 2026, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. They include two United Nations employees, a UN consultant, and five people who worked with international and local civil society organizations on a range of issues, including health, human rights, and humanitarian aid. The Houthis should immediately halt these prosecutions and unconditionally release the eight people whose cases were sent to the prosecution, as well as the scores of other UN staff and civil society workers the Houthis have arbitrarily detained over the past two years. The prosecution is the latest escalation in a crackdown by Houthi authorities on civil society in the part of Yemen they control, with successive waves of arrests of Yemenis targeting UN staff and civil society members since May 31, 2024. The Houthis have arbitrarily detained over 100 such staff and workers, holding them without charge and denying them access to lawyers and their families. Many of the detentions started as enforced disappearances. An enforced disappearance happens when a person is deprived of liberty and their detention is denied or their situation or whereabouts concealed, placing them outside the protection of the law. “As fighting once again escalates in Yemen, the Houthis have maliciously moved to prosecute at least eight UN and civil society workers on charges that could, if convicted, result in the death penalty,” said Diala Haidar, Yemen researcher at Amnesty International. “Demanding the immediate release of Yemen’s UN and civil society workers should be a top priority for governments, and not an afterthought.” Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International spoke to seven people with direct knowledge of the cases, including family members of those detained.All eight transferred for prosecution remain in detention and have deteriorating health conditions, including at least two who have diabetes and have not been able to get adequate medical care and one who is at risk of glaucoma. One has stomach cancer and has been undergoing chemotherapy while in detention. Some family members said the detainees told them they had been forced to confess to espionage charges under torture or threats of torture. Since 2015, Amnesty International has documented scores of cases in which Houthi authorities used spying charges to target political opponents and silence peaceful dissent. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented the Houthis’ use of torture to obtain confessions. “It is outrageous that detainees are facing the risk of the death penalty simply for providing medical and food assistance or promoting human rights, peace, and dialogue,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It is critical for other governments to step up diplomatic efforts to secure the release of the dozens of arbitrarily detained members of Yemen’s civil society and UN staff, especially considering the attacks prisons have faced in the conflict.”Imposing the death penalty after unfair proceedings makes its use as a punishment arbitrary and in violation of international legal standards, the organizations said. Further, under international human rights law, only the “most serious crimes” can legitimately attract the death penalty, which has been interpreted as limited to intentional killing. None of those facing prosecution have been accused of such actions. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch oppose the death penalty unconditionally, in any cases and under any circumstance.The eight people transferred to the Specialized Criminal Prosecution in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, are facing charges of “espionage” and “aiding the enemy” (articles 127 and 128 of Yemen’s Penal Code), both punishable by death. The Specialized Criminal Prosecution has also made vague and overly broad accusations about the detainees’ humanitarian and human rights work, alleging that they had “hidden and malicious goals” as part of a premeditated plan to “destroy the values of society.” The Sanaa-based Specialized Criminal Court, established in 1999, has jurisdiction over a variety of security-related crimes and offenses deemed detrimental to state security and public interests. As the Houthis consolidated their control over territories, they also consolidated their control over the judiciary, and the court has been used as a tool for political repression. All eight detainees have been denied adequate access to their lawyers. Sami Kallabi, 41, who worked for the UN at the time of his arrest on June 6, 2024, has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy at a military hospital. Despite his critical health situation, he has been denied family visits and the Houthi authorities are refusing to disclose where he is being held.Labib Shayef, 57, is a consultant also detained on June 6, 2024, from his office in Sanaa. Since then, he has only been allowed a single visit from his family, in August 2025. His health has severely deteriorated in detention. He has diabetes and contracted Hepatitis B in custody but has not been provided with adequate access to health care.Prosecutors have questioned him about his work with local and international organizations, including on gender and peace-related programs. At the time of his arrest, Dr. Ali Al-Mudhwahi was a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) consultant and an adviser to the Houthi’s Ministry of Public Health and Population, his wife Safiah Mohammed told Human Rights Watch. The authorities have subjected him to “solitary confinement, torture, and severe psychological pressure” throughout his detention, his wife said he told her over the phone.The Houthis, who oppose vaccinations, have tried to force Al-Mudhwahi to say that vaccines are “nothing but espionage tools” and that he is “a spy recruited by the World Health Organization,” his wife said. Starting on May 31, 2024, the Houthis carried out a series of raids in areas under their control, arbitrarily detaining 13 UN staff and at least 50 staff from Yemeni and international civil society organizations. Since that time, the Houthis have arbitrarily detained dozens more UN staff and civil society workers. As of February 2026, at least 73 UN staff and dozens of humanitarian and civil society workers remained in Houthi detention, all of them Yemeni nationals. On February 11, 2025, an aid worker from the World Food Programme died in Houthi custody. His death heightens fears for the safety and well-being of others arbitrarily detained in Houthi-run detention centers, given the Houthis’ track record of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees. Many of those detained were arrested without being shown arrest warrants and were forcibly disappeared for months before their detention was acknowledged and whereabouts known. While some have received medical care, many have not, including some people with serious medical conditions.