Houthis kidnap UN and NGO workers accusing them of spying for Israel
Several agencies have denied the charges and denounced the human rights violations that Iran's allies in Yemen have been committing.
A group of Houthi terrorists
Dozens of UN workers and humanitarian organizations have been detained by Houthi rebels in Yemen since June, accused of being part of a "U.S.-Israeli espionage network." The agency denied the accusations and claimed that these people have been "arbitrarily"abducted by the Iranian-backed terrorists.
"We are extremely concerned by reports of criminal prosecutions by the de facto Houthi authorities against a significant number of arbitrarily detained colleagues," several UN entities and international NGOs said in a statement.
Among the signatories to the statement are the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; the head of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay; U.N. Human Rights Chief, Volker Turk, and Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar.
Allegations of Houthis abducting and torturing civilians
The Houthis have abducted, arbitrarily detained and tortured hundreds of civilians, including UN and NGO workers, since the start of Yemen's civil war in 2014, according to human rights groups.
In June they detained 13 UN officials, including six employees of the Human Rights Office, and more than 50 NGO staff and an embassy worker.
The rebels claim they were detained for being part of "a U.S.-Israeli espionage network" operating under the cover of humanitarian organizations, a charge rejected by the U.N. Human Rights Office.
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