SANA’A (Dispatches) – A senior official of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council has dismissed remarks made by the UN secretary-general in response to the execution of nine men accused of killing a senior Yemeni leader in 2018.
In reaction to a statement by Antonio Guterres, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi called it “politically motivated”.
Al-Houthi, who heads the resistance movement’s supreme revolutionary committee, said the execution of the nine men accused in the assassination of Saleh al-Samad, the former head of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, followed the due process of law.
He said the UN chief’s statement came at the behest of “aggressor countries”, because of their “close connection” with the diabolical crime, accusing them of “financing and planning it”.
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the UN chief, had earlier quoted Guterres as saying in a statement that the trial did not meet “the requirements of fair trial and due process”.
Dujarric further said the secretary general “deeply regrets” the executions.
Al-Samad, accompanied by at least six escorts, was killed in an airstrike by the Saudi-led military coalition during his visit to the coastal city of Hudaydah on April 23, 2018.
He was the highest-ranking member of the Ansarullah resistance movement to be killed by the coalition.
Yemen’s government announced that the nine men were charged and convicted for their complicity in the crime, including spying and sharing sensitive information with the Saudi-led coalition.
They were sentenced to death by a criminal court in Hudaydah, and executed publicly on Saturday in the capital Sana’a.
Yemen’s al-Masira network said the video of their confessions would be released soon.