Saeed Al-Batati 

ALEXANDRIA: The Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen on Wednesday sacked hundreds of security officers and ordered them to be put on trial for supporting the internationally recognized government of Yemen and Arab coalition military operations in the country.

The militia’s Supreme Police Council approved the firing of 904 security officers and referred their names to the courts, accusing them of being renegades after joining the Yemeni government and supporting the Arab coalition.

Houthi officials say that the latest sacking of the officers is part of a campaign to clear their security and military bodies of “infiltrators.”

Since seizing power in late 2014, the Houthis have purged thousands of public servants, military and security officials, journalists, activists, lawmakers and politicians for allegedly colluding with their opponents and have later put them on trial.

The Houthis seized property, froze bank accounts and harassed their families living in areas under their control.

Critics say that the Houthis are using courts under their control to legalize the crackdown against their opponents and the confiscation of private property.

Former security officers who fled Houthi-controlled areas say that the rebels have abducted hundreds of public servants and military and security officials who did not express support for the movement.

Fawzia Ahmed, former head of the women’s section in Sanaa’s Central Prison who deserted the Houthi-held capital in late 2019, told Arab News that the Houthis abducted dozens of her colleagues and fired many others for not supporting the movement.

“They label you a ‘renegade’ and then jail you and seize your property. The Houthis have thrown a large number of security officers in prisons and confiscated their houses, cars and lands,” Fawzia said. She added that the Houthi crackdown on security and military personnel intensified after the death of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in late 2017, and mainly targeted thousands of his supporters.

Last month, the Houthi government approved a proposal for forcing 160,000 state workers to retire, stripping them of the financial benefits of their jobs; a move that has triggered uproar in Yemen amid warnings that thousands of people would be out of work.

The move would replace the retired workers with Houthi loyalists.

Thousands of public servants have not been paid since 2016 when the Houthis stopped salaries in response to the Yemen government’s relocation of the central bank from Sanaa to Aden.

Yemen’s Parliament Speaker Sultan Al-Barkani said that the Houthi rejection of peace efforts to end the war in Yemen and their continuing military operations across the country, including their deadly offensive on the central city of Marib, have aggravated the humanitarian crisis and deepened the economic meltdown.

During a meeting with the new British ambassador to Yemen, Richard Oppenheim, on Wednesday, Al-Barkani urged the international community to put more pressure on the rebels to stop their escalating military activities and accept peace proposals, the official news agency SABA said.