In a complaint to the United Nations, Maat Calls for Opening an Investigation into the Killing of Yemeni Journalist Rasha Al-Harazi

Okeil: The international community must provide protection for journalists in Yemen and hold the Houthis accountable for their violations  

Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights submitted an urgent complaint to the United Nations special procedures, especially the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, urging for opening an urgent investigation into the killing of Yemeni journalist Rasha Al-Harazi, under an official authorization from her husband, journalist Mahmoud Al-Otmi.

In this complaint, Maat expressed its deep regret over the terrorist incident that targeted Yemeni journalist Rasha Al-Harazi, who died instantly, along with her unborn baby. In addition, her husband was seriously injured. On Tuesday, November 9, 2021, unknown persons planted an explosive device in the car of Al-Harazi and her husband, and it exploded in the Abyan Coast in Khormaksar, Aden.

Maat also called on the local authorities in Aden Governorate to open an urgent investigation to discover the circumstances of the terrorist incident, and called on all parties to the conflict in Yemen to provide a safe and favorable environment in which journalists in Yemen can practice their work without fear.

Maat had documented the violations committed against journalists in 2021, which amounted to 86 violations, ranging from extrajudicial killing and injury, physical assault, and targeting press and media institutions, the most prominent of which was the killing of 4 journalists: Ahmed Bu Saleh, Tariq Mustafa, Ahmed Baras, Rasha Al Harazi. Maat also documented, as part of its campaign on stopping the war in Yemen, more than 1,039 violations against journalists since the beginning of the conflict until the end of 2020, which varied between 332 cases of arrests of journalists and 220 cases of assault and attempted murder of journalists, in addition to 36 cases of trials against journalists in Yemen and 62 raids and confiscations of journalists’ properties. It also documented 81 cases of stopping advertising media and confiscating photographic equipment, 44 cases of obstructing the work of media workers, in addition to about 264 cases of blocking and threatening to block websites.

Notably, in his first interview after surviving the assassination, the journalist Mahmoud Al-Otmi, the victim’s husband, accused the Houthi group of being involved in the assassination, as they were looking for information about him as his place of residence, the type and number of his car a few days before the incident.

For his part, the international human rights expert and the president of Maat, Ayman Okeil, said that the spread of a culture of impunity in areas of armed conflict, especially in Yemen, and specifically in areas under the control of the Houthi group, enhances the targeting of journalists and media workers, and considered that every incident in which journalists are exposed to violence or threatening without investigation or bringing the perpetrators to justice increases violations against journalists. Okeil called on all parties to comply with the principles and provisions of international humanitarian law, and international human rights standards that regulate the work of journalists in areas of armed conflict. Okeil also called on the entire international community to address the deteriorating reality of press freedom conditions, protect journalists in Yemen and provide the appropriate conditions for practicing their work.

Finally, Maat called on special procedures to address the local authorities in Aden Governorate to open an immediate investigation to reveal the circumstances of the terrorist incident that Al-Harazi was exposed to, as well as the threats received by her husband, journalist Mahmoud Al-Otmi, who is still receiving threats related to his safety, and to bring perpetrators to justics as soon as possible.