CAIRO (AP) — Human rights experts working for the United Nations on Monday urged Yemen’s Houthi rebels to release five people from the country’s Baha’i religious minority who have been in detention for a year.
The five are among 17 Baha’i followers detained last May when the Houthis raided a Baha’i gathering in the capital of Sanaa. The experts said in a statement that 12 have since been released “under very strict conditions” but that five remain “detained in difficult circumstances.”
There have long been concerns about the treatment of the members of the Baha’i minority at the hands of the Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis, who have ruled much of the impoverished Arab country’s north and the capital, Sanaa, since the civil war started in 2014.
The experts said they “urge the de facto authorities to release” the five remaining detainees, warning they were at “serious risk of torture and other human rights violations, including acts tantamount to enforced disappearance.”
Nadal returns to Roland Garros to practice amid doubts over fitness and form
One Extraordinary Photo: Covering the Masters
Only one member of the royal family has ever run the London Marathon
Barcelona midfielder De Jong leaves 'clasico' on a stretcher after right leg injury
Sarah Jayne Dunn sets pulses racing in animal print bra as she joins chic Georgia May Foote at CO
Liverpool stays in the hunt for the Premier League title with 3
Rosanna Arquette gushes over Pulp Fiction co
Young Boys seals 6th Swiss soccer league title in 7 years after rallying from firing coach Wicky
8 shot, 2 men killed at a party in Memphis park
Ricky Stenhouse punching Kyle Busch could lead to suspension
United escapes with shootout win after blowing three