Yemeni Parliament withdraw al-Houthi's legislative immunity

The parliament approved the continuation of revoking the parliamentary immunity of parliamentarian Yahya Badr al-Din al-Houthi for three months. This decision came after the request of the justice minister, last Saturday.

A report by the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee at the Parliament renewed the call for lifting the immunity of the parliamentarian, al-Houthi. The Parliament referred a request from the Minister of Justice, Ghazi Shaif al-Aghbari, to the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee, asking to revoke immunity from parliament member, Yahya Badr al-Din al-Houthi, during their session last Tuesday.

Al-Houthi is convicted of playing a part in forming an armed group and inciting a rebellion against the government, as well as spying for other countries. 

Yahya al-Houthi is the brother of Hussein and Abdul-Malik al-Houthi. Yahya ran away to Germany after the first war between al-Houthis and the Yemen government in 2004 

In his request letter, al-Aghbari asserted that al-Houthi is convicted of playing a major part in forming an armed group, inciting a rebellion against the government, and supporting the terroristic acts in Sa’adah, as well as spying for other countries.

A head of the General People’s Congress (GPC) parliamentary block, Sultan al-Barakani, said that the government is not serious in withdrawing immunity from the leader of the rebel Yahya al- Houthi, or drop his membership from the Parliament.

The Parliament approved withdrawing the immunity of al-Houthi on June 7th, 2008. Al-Houthi rebels have been launching intermittent wars against the troops since 2004. Since the fighting erupted in 2004, thousands of people, soldiers and insurgents have been killed in Sa’adah. The rebel leader Hussein al- Houthi founded the rebel group; the army killed Hussein, the eldest brother of the current group leader Abdul-Malik, in September 2004.

The Yemeni government accuses the Houthi group of trying to reinstall the rule of imams, which was toppled by a republican revolution in northern Yemen in 1962.

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