Houthi Official Responds to the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva
YemenExtra
M.A.
A member of the Supreme Political Council responded to the call of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva to “repeal the death sentences of 35 parliamentarians,” by affirming “the independence of the Yemeni judiciary”, and by welcoming the appointment of a defense lawyer to plead before the court for court sentences, criticizing the commission’s silence on Saudi war crimes against Yemenis and what he called “political and financial motives for the United Nations’ statements.”
Muhammad al-Houthi said in a tweet on his Twitter account at midnight on Friday: “What the United Nations usually makes of statements and accusations being issued unfairly is what must be called into question since they have political and financial motives instead of the judiciary.”
He continued, “the Yemeni judiciary is independent. Personally, I do not mind the presence of lawyers to plead before the judiciary for traitors. Rather, it is welcome in every capacity, and the organizations are available to attend the sessions.
Moreover, the Supreme Political Council member also criticized what he considered to be the selectivity of the United Nations in condemning, while he said in a second tweet: “Although we do not know the names of the list mentioned by Liz Trousel, the statements are provocative for they defend the traitors and are silent toward thousands of crimes.”
In addition, “If they (UN officials) speak, they do so by calling the parties without condemning the Saudi-led coalition for the massacres it commits.”
Muhammad al-Houthi also expressed one of the reasons behind describing the motives of the United Nations’ statements as “political and financial” for the United Nations got threatened to stop its funding and forced to remove the coalition countries from the list of shame for the violators of children’s rights.
He added that, “the scandal of the Secretary-General (Ban Ki-moon) is yet to be forgotten whereas he acquiesced to political money and removed Saudi Arabia from the list of shame.”
Furthermore, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva expressed “grave concern about the death sentence of 35 Yemeni parliamentarians in absentia from a court in Sanaa.” “Parliamentarians have been accused of treason,” said Liz Trousel, a spokeswoman for the office.
“According to the Human Rights Office, the politicians were sentenced to death for “taking measures that threaten the stability, unity, and territorial integrity of the Republic of Yemen.”, she added.
However, the UN official, Liz Truessel, expressed in a press conference held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, “the Office’s concern about the progress of the trial in general” and that it is “politically motivated”, and said that it had failed “in compliance with international norms and standards”. She also called on behalf of the Human Rights office the “de facto authorities to immediately repeal the judgments handed down to deputies, and to ensure that their families are not harassed,” she said.
On the other hand, the member of the political council, Muhammad al-Houthi, responded with a third tweet, in which he said: “We may witness in the upcoming days more varied rumors against the Yemeni people facing the American-British Saudi Emirati aggression and its allies and mercenaries.”
“The greater the victories, the greater the rumors, lies and slander among these criminal murderers. However, they are defeated by the awareness of the Yemeni people”, he concluded.