THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

Agence France-Presse reported that the court in Ibb Governorate, which Iran-backed Houthi rebels control, announced the sentences on Feb. 4. The rebels, a jihadist group, has been launching attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

The U.S. State Department's 2022 human-rights report notes Yemeni law criminalizes consensual same-sex relations, "with the death penalty as a sanction under the country's interpretation of Islamic law."

The court findings are open to appeal and it is not clear when any of the public executions are due to be carried out, PinkNews noted. However, according to a 2022 report from the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, the Houthis have sentenced 350 people to death—executing 11—since they seized Yemen's capital city of Sanaa in 2014.

Amnesty International has stated that the rebels continue to target LGBTQ+ people with arbitrary arrest and torture, including rape and other forms of sexual violence. In 2022, the Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist organization in South Yemen, and the Houthis arrested at least five people on the basis of either their refusal to conform to "masculine" and "feminine" presentation or because of their LGBTQ+ activism.

—Andrew Davis