Yemeni government sentences Abdulmalik Al-Houthi to death by firing squad in absentia

Yemen's military court sentenced Houthi leader Abdelmalik Al-Houthi and nearly 200 others to death by firing squad for "committing crimes against the nation".

The Yemeni government, currently led by Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and exiled in the Saudi city of Riyadh, said Al-Houthi and 173 others have been sentenced to death, Saba News reported.

They were all found guilty of staging a military coup against the Hadi government in September 2014 - when the Houthis took over Sanaa - committing military offences, and war crimes.

The court branded the Houthis a "terrorist criminal group," and called its actions illegal. The court ruled that the group's properties would be confiscated and members disarmed, and all military equipment handed over to the defence ministry.

The Yemen government and its allies have fought a seven-year war against the rebels with little success.

The court also ruled that Iran would be prosecuted before the International Court of Justice for arming and enabling the Houthis.

In July, a court in the northern province of Marib held the initial session of the trial of Houthi leaders, accusing them of leading the coup against Hadi and the military campaign to capture the rest of Yemen that followed.

In January 2020, a Houthi court sentenced Hadi to death on charges of "high treason" and "impersonating the president of the republic" and was also fined one and a half million Yemeni riyals to cover the trial's legal fees, according to The New Arab's Arabic language service.

The Houthi coup in Sanaa in September 2014 resulted in the Saudi-led coalition beginning their military intervention in March 2015, which plunged the country into a six-year war.

Both the Houthis and the Yemeni government have been accused of corruption while civilians living in the areas they control starve.

Violence against women, especially in Houthi-controlled areas, has been on the increase since Yemen plunged into a civil war in 2014 that the United Nations says has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Journalists and opposition figures have also been tortured by the Houthi rebels, with further accusations of the Iran-backed group recruiting child soldiers.