Yemeni court issues death sentences for bin Salman, bin Zayed

A special criminal court in Hodeidah on Monday sentenced 16 men, including bin Zayed, Bin Salman, to death for espionage that led to the assassination of the Al-Samad, the head of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council in 2018, Yemen’s Saba news agency reported.

The list of the convicts also includes Yemen's former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, and Yemen's former prime minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr.

Al-Samad was killed in Saudi Arabia’s airstrike in the western province of Hodeidah on April 23, 2018. He had been elected President in the capital city Sanaa by the Supreme Political Council in late 2016. 

According to a report by al-Arabiya back then, a Saudi-owned pan-Arab television news channel, the Saudi-led military coalition, which has constantly bombarded Yemen since 2015, had offered a 20-million-dollar prize for any information that could help uncover the location of Samad’s domicile.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Manour Hadi back to power and crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

According to reports, the war has claimed close to 100,000 lives over the past five years.

The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.