Yemen: 8 get death for collaborating with coalition

By Hamdi Yildiz

MAARIB, Yemen

A court in Yemen’s capital sentenced eight people to death Wednesday for cooperating with Saudi-led coalition forces, according to Yemen’s official SABA news agency.

The Houthi-run news agency reported that a criminal court in Sanaa ordered the death penalty after convicting them of cooperating with “enemy forces”.

Spying for Saudi Arabia was also among the charges they faced, it added.

Impoverished Yemen has remained dogged by violence since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including Sanaa.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a massive air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi gains in Yemen.

The ongoing violence has devastated Yemen’s public infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as one of “the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.