A Houthi-run court on Sunday confirmed a death sentence previously handed to three civilians abducted by the Yemeni militia nine years ago, in a ruling that sparked widespread outrage.

Abdul Majeed Sabra, a Yemeni lawyer, told Arab News on Monday that the Houthi Specialized Criminal Division court in Sanaa upheld a sentence imposed by the Court of First Instance in the province of Mahwit in the cases of Ismael Abu Al-Ghait, Sagher Farea and Abdul Aziz, who were accused of killing a local Houthi leader and collaborating with the militia’s opponents.

Yemeni rights groups said the three men were abducted by the Houthis in 2015, forcibly disappeared and tortured. Sabra said lawyers would appeal against the decision to the Supreme Court in Sanaa. The three defendants were refused legal representation throughout the hearing but were allowed to have counsel present in the court, he added.

The death sentence ruling fueled demands by local rights organizations for the Houthis to halt executions of Yemeni citizens who reject their rule.

The Mothers of Abductees Association, which represents thousands of relatives of prisoners held by the militia, strongly condemned the death sentence ruling and accused the Houthis of forcibly disappearing the three civilians for more than five years, preventing them from contacting their families, and subjecting the men, one of whom has mobility impairments, to physical and psychological torture.

“We call upon all organizations, the UN envoy and the UN secretary-general to take serious action and pressure the (Houthi) group to halt the death sentences against arbitrarily detained individuals, given that these trials lack fair-trial guarantees,” the association said.

Other Yemeni groups, including the National Authority for Prisoners and Abductees, similarly condemned Houthi death sentences and accused the militia of using courts in regions under their control to legitimize the abuse of civilians and critics.

Since seizing control of parts of Yemen a decade ago, the Houthis have sentenced scores of officials and other people to death, including a former president, military and security chiefs, journalists, human rights campaigners, and others who challenge their brutal rule.

The National Authority for Prisoners and Abductees said during a press conference in the central Yemeni city of Marib last week that the Houthis have sentenced 145 people to death, including nine people who were executed in Sanaa in 2021, and that 70 civilians in Houthi custody face execution.

Meanwhile, Yemeni Landmine Records, a group that tracks deaths and injuries cause by the devices, said on Sunday that a man, his wife and a child were injured when a Houthi landmine exploded in the Hays area of western Hodeidah province.

It happened just hours after a landmine killed a child and injured two people in the Nehim district of Sanaa province, the group said. A child and a woman were also injured by Houthi landmines in the Medi area of northern Hajjah province, it added.