Yemen will publicly stone & crucify 10 gay men in “gruesome public spectacles”

Iran-backed Houthi courts in Yemen have sentenced dozens of men to public execution, flogging, and prison on charges related to same-sex conduct, judicial sources in the country report according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

More than 40 men have been sentenced in two courts run by the Houthi regime. The regime has been attacking shipping vessels on the Red Sea since November and suffered retaliatory strikes by the United States and Britain. 

Related: Biden administration calls out Burundi’s president for saying gay people should be stoned to death

Joe Biden recently kicked Uganda out of a trade deal for enacting the death penalty for homosexuality.

Two weeks ago, a criminal court in the northern city of Dhamar sentenced nine men to death: seven by stoning and two by crucifixion.

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Twenty-three other men — charged with “homosexuality”, “spreading immorality”, and “immoral acts” — received sentences ranging from six months to 10 years in prison.

Last week, a different Houthi court in the southern governorate of Ibb sentenced 13 students to death for crimes related to gay sex. Three others will suffer public flogging for “spreading homosexuality.”

Another 35 people have been detained in the governorate on homosexuality charges, sources said.

The sentences were a striking repudiation of so-called Western values in the face of the retaliatory attacks launched by the U.S. and U.K. against the North African nation.

Yemen sits at the southeastern edge of the Red Sea, where the Iran-backed regime has launched dozens of provocative drone and missile assaults on commercial shipping and U.S Navy targets following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, and Israel’s overwhelming military response in the Gaza Strip ever since.

The Iran-backed Houthi regime, which controls the most populated areas of the desert nation, has been engaged in a long-running war with a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, Yemen’s northern neighbor.

Grazia Careccia, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director, called the planned executions “gruesome public spectacles” designed to spread fear among LGBTQ+ people and the Yemeni population at large.

She described all of the sentences as “deeply distressing.”

“Public flogging is a cruel and inhuman punishment which violates the absolute prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment under international law, and should not be carried out under any circumstances,” she said in a statement. 

“The authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all individuals who are held solely based on their sexual orientation or gender identity,” she added.

Niku Jafarnia, a Yemen researcher from Human Rights Watch, told AFP, “The Houthis are ramping up their abuses at home while the world is busy watching their attacks in the Red Sea.”

“If they really cared about the human rights they purport to be standing up for in Palestine,” Jafarnia added, “they wouldn’t be flogging and stoning Yemenis to death.”

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