Anticipated Lawsuits: UAE Accused of Funding Yemen Assassination
The global platform Orian 21 emphasized that the opportunity has arisen to initiate impending legal actions against the UAE in international courts for its alleged backing of extrajudicial killings in Yemen.
The website alerted to a documentary broadcasted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on January 23, 2024, which shed a controversial spotlight on the actions of the UAE in southern Yemen.
The investigation presented details of the involvement of American mercenaries and an Israeli company in the assassination of political and religious figures in Aden since 2015.
The website pointed out that for a long time, the targeting of figures from the Islah party, the Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as Salafist leaders and journalists, remained an unknown aspect of the Emirati strategy in Yemen.
To external observers, the extended sequence of assassinations in the southern regions of the nation, particularly during the period from 2016 to 2018, frequently seemed tangential to the main conflict.
These assassinations were perceived as a method of combating jihadists, a strategy considered essential and successful following the liberation of Aden from Houthi control in the summer of 2015. Nonetheless, this approach remained closely monitored.
In this situation, the authorities in Aden, aligned with the Emiratis, portrayed the assassinations that targeted numerous individuals as mere disputes among Islamists.
They specifically implicated jihadists or even the Houthis, as evidenced by the assassination of prominent Salafist figure Abdul Rahman al-Adani in February 2016.
In other cases, they announced that their extrajudicial killings targeted members of Al-Qaeda or ISIS.
Killing opponents
Yet, in Aden and its neighboring regions, the Emirati implication in the killings was widely known, driven by entirely distinct objectives.
Civilians were targeted who distanced themselves from the jihadists, had no commitment other than political or mosque-related activity, and what they all had in common was criticism of the United Arab Emirates.
The list of casualties in this covert conflict is significant. More than one hundred people perished in incidents between 2016 and 2018, exacerbating instability in the expansive coastal city—a situation that remains ongoing.
During this time, Aden was expected to exemplify a tranquil Yemen liberated from the grip of the Houthis; however, it instead endured persistent turmoil and suffering.
Consequently, it has come to symbolize, for many Yemenis, the failure of potential alternatives to the northern rebels.
Among those affected are individuals like Adel Al-Shehri, a Salafist who sought reconciliation with the Islah Party and denounced Al-Qaeda, and prominent figures like Rawi Samhan Al-Ariqi, who shared similar traits.
The details of their killings remained undisclosed. The case of Mohsen al-Sarari’s murder in 2019, the son of human rights advocate Hoda al-Sarari, serves as a stark example of how this clandestine conflict was scarcely connected to combating jihadists.
Furthermore, numerous activists and local officials associated with the Islah Party were singled out, with Ansaf Mayo, a Yemeni parliament member who survived a car bomb attack, among them. Additionally, journalists employed by media organizations aligned with this party were also subject to targeting.
Al Jazeera’s investigative documentary series, “The Black Box,” aired an episode titled “What role is the UAE seeking in Yemen?” In 2018, it alleged that the UAE was funding a sequence of assassinations to combat its adversaries, particularly targeting the Muslim Brotherhood in southern Yemen.
This documentary revealed that this strategy was accompanied by many human rights violations, especially systematic torture in many secret centers spread in areas under UAE control.
Direct testimonies of the killers
Six years later, Nawal Al-Mahqafi’s relentless documentary about “American mercenaries hired by UAE to kill in Yemen” confirms the accusations against the UAE.
This journalist of Yemeni origin has solid experience and has won three Emmy Awards in honor of her work on sex trafficking in Iraq and the Covid crisis in Yemen.
In her documentary named “The Conflict in Yemen: UAE-Funded Political Assassinations,” Al-Mahqafi provides an opportunity for direct insight by featuring the testimonies of American citizens, and former soldiers actively involved in the assassination initiative.
In their statements, they affirm their involvement in combatting the jihadists, asserting that their actions were solely benevolent and that they adhered to Abu Dhabi’s directives without objection.
During the documentary, disturbing connections are revealed: Mercenaries were hired via the security firm ‘Spear Operations Group,’ led by Abraham Golan, a Hungarian-Israeli, who used his ties with Mohammed Dahlan, a Palestinian advisor to Mohammed bin Zayed, the Emirati ruler.
The journalist’s inquiry involved numerous interviews and corroborating documents, drawing from the diligent efforts of the organization ‘Reprieve’ and human rights advocate Baraa Shaiban.
It also included previous information that had been published by the American media outlet Buzzfeed in 2018.
These data as a whole prove that the identities of most of the victims cannot be linked to armed Islamic movements in any way. Even if so, extrajudicial executions remain a clear violation of human rights, and are carried out outside any legal framework.
The documentary demonstrates that these individuals are not simply ‘collateral victims,’ but rather targets of a calculated strategy to eradicate UAE opponents, even through alliances with certain jihadists who oppose the Muslim Brotherhood.
The documentary detailed specific names and incidents, highlighting peculiar coincidences, such as the timing of Ahmed Al-Idrissi’s assassination, a Southern Movement leader who resisted handing over control of the port of Aden to the UAE. It underscores the interconnectedness of politics and exploitation.
The Indignation Towards the UAE
Undoubtedly, the documentary could affirm the prevailing dissatisfaction among the Yemeni populace with the UAE’s approach.
From Sudan to Libya, and across Yemen, the UAE’s foreign policy, notably backed by France, has instigated turmoil, conflict, and insecurity since the Arab uprisings of 2011.
In its efforts to set up a military base and exert control over a small emirate on Socotra Island, while also backing the Southern Movement against the internationally recognized government, ‘Little Sparta’ pursued contentious diplomacy, marked by controversy surrounding its objectives and methods.
Hence, the significant fragmentation in Yemen can be attributed largely to the directives issued from Abu Dhabi, undoubtedly influenced by the hubris of Saudi leadership.
In reaction to the broadcast of the documentary, Ali Al-Bukhaiti, a former supporter of the Houthis who has become a vocal critic of them, explained how the strategy of liquidating political and religious figures in Aden directly contributed to the failure of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition.
Indeed, this strategy has deeply divided the anti-Houthi faction and fostered widespread distrust of regional actors. Two days after the documentary aired, Al-Bukhaiti hosted a chat on the X platform (formerly Twitter), attracting over 15 thousand viewers.
Additionally, responses to the documentary reflected a call for addressing extrajudicial killings through legal channels.
For numerous activists, including those who have suffered imprisonment and torture by UAE security forces, the presented evidence serves as grounds for international legal action. In this context, the efforts of Reprieve and Hoda Al-Sarari are highly significant, and Nawal Al-Mahqafi’s emphasis on them represents a crucial advancement.
