Independent UN experts urge Yemen’s Houthis to free detained Baha’i followers

By SAMY MAGDY
Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — Human rights experts working for the United Nations are urging Yemen’s Houthi rebels to release five people from the country’s Baha’i religious minority who have been in detention for a year. The experts said on Monday that the five are among 17 Baha’i followers detained last May when the Houthis raided a Baha’i gathering in the capital of Sanaa. The experts say 12 have since been released “under very strict conditions.” A spokesman for the Houthis didn’t return a request for comment. The Baha’i have been particularly vulnerable to persecution and pressure to convert to Islam by the Houthis.