After Nine Years of Abduction and a Death Sentence, Houthis Release Asmaa al-Omeisy
Yemen Monitor / Newsroom:
The Yemeni detainee Asmaa al-Omeisy has been released after nearly nine years of arbitrary imprisonment and severe abuses in Houthi-run prisons, according to the American Center for Justice (ACJ), which welcomed her release and stressed that her case exposed the scale of violations and judicial corruption committed by the group against civilians.
Al-Omeisy was first detained on October 7, 2016, following a security incident targeting her husband, who was suspected of belonging to al-Qaeda in Hadramawt province. While her husband fled, Asmaa was briefly held before being released, only to be arrested again shortly after upon her return to Sanaa with her father and others.
In the following years, she was subjected to sham trials in which the Houthi-run primary criminal court sentenced her to death.
Her defense was led by human rights lawyer Abdulmajid Sabra, who succeeded in appealing the verdict before the Court of Appeals, which commuted her sentence to 15 years in prison. The case was later referred to the Supreme Court, which overturned both rulings and sent the file back to the appeals court, where she was handed a new 10-year sentence on charges never formally presented to her.
The ACJ stressed that al-Omeisy’s case is not just an individual one but a stark example of judicial violations and denial of justice in Yemen. It praised the pivotal role played by lawyer Abdulmajid Sabra in saving her from execution, noting that he is currently imprisoned by the Houthis himself, held without legal basis in flagrant violation of human rights and international law.
Journalist Abdelkhaleq Amran, citing legal and human rights sources, said al-Omeisy’s release—she is the mother of two children—came after nearly a decade of sustained legal and human rights pressure. He noted that lawyer Sabra had already succeeded in 2021 in overturning her death sentence before the criminal court in Sanaa.
Amnesty International and other rights organizations had previously described the abuses suffered by al-Omeisy—including enforced disappearance, torture, and unfair trial—as war crimes, stressing that dozens of women abducted in Houthi prisons face similar practices ranging from psychological and physical torture to sham trials on fabricated charges.
The ACJ renewed its call for the immediate and unconditional release of lawyer Abdulmajid Sabra and all arbitrarily detained individuals, warning that the continuation of such violations poses a grave threat to the principles of justice and human rights, and urging urgent international action to ensure accountability and end impunity.
The case of Asmaa al-Omeisy stands as a dark chapter in the record of Houthi violations, but also as a testament to the resilience of victims and the ongoing legal struggle to defend human rights in Yemen despite all risks and challenges.
