SAM for Rights and Liberties stated that the execution of the young man, Amin Nasser Bahaj, in the Haban District of Shabwa Governorate, after his family handed him over to the family of the victim Basel Al-Marwah Al-Babakri, who was killed days earlier according to local accounts, constitutes an arbitrary extrajudicial execution and a grave violation of the right to life. The organization noted that the incident reflects a dangerous level of collapse in the justice system and erosion of the rule of law in Yemen, within a context marked by escalating societal violence and the absence of the state as the sole authority responsible for protecting rights and enforcing the law.
The organization explained that it reviewed a video circulated on social media documenting the execution in a collective and brutal manner, carried out without the opening of any criminal investigation, without initiating legal procedures, without presenting the accused before the Public Prosecution, and without affording him the basic guarantees of a fair trial, amid the complete absence of the competent law enforcement authorities.
SAM stressed that this total absence of judicial procedures transforms the incident from an individual killing into a structural indicator of the dysfunction of justice institutions and the state’s failure to fulfill its fundamental duty to protect the right to life and prevent the imposition of private punishments outside the framework of the law.
SAM further stated that the right to life is an inherent and sacred right, safeguarded under Yemeni law by robust legal and procedural guarantees that prohibit its violation except through strict judicial procedures that ensure justice and the right to defense. The organization emphasized that the imposition of penalties—particularly those depriving life—remains the exclusive prerogative of the competent judiciary, following a fair trial that exhausts all stages of litigation. International laws and conventions have likewise enshrined this right as a cornerstone of the human rights system, prohibited arbitrary deprivation of life, and obligated states to prevent, investigate, and hold accountable perpetrators of any form of extrajudicial execution.
The organization affirmed that this incident is not isolated, but rather part of a recurring pattern of extrajudicial executions, revenge killings, and the enforcement of punishment through tribal means in several governorates, amid weak state institutions, a paralyzed judiciary, the absence of judicial police, and growing impunity. This has undermined public trust in justice and opened the door to violent practices presented as alternatives to legal redress, while in reality directly fueling cycles of violence and social fragmentation.
In this context, SAM recalled that it documented in February an extrajudicial execution in Abyan Governorate, in which citizen Naif Hussein Al-Hindi was killed. He was shot dead publicly after being detained for several days, without being brought before any competent judicial authority or subjected to legal procedures, following the killing of Jaloud Al-Jawfi days earlier. According to information and testimonies reviewed by the organization at the time, the execution occurred amid the absence of an effective role by law enforcement agencies, raising serious concerns about the recurrence of such crimes in an environment characterized by weak accountability and the breakdown of legal protection mechanisms for civilians.
SAM believes that the Shabwa incident, like the earlier case in Abyan, cannot be understood in isolation from the chaos of armed militias and the multiplicity of power centers outside state authority, a reality that has undermined the state’s legitimate monopoly on the use of force and created an environment in which de facto authorities compete at the expense of the law. In this context of fragmentation, armed groups have transformed into actors performing state functions without legal basis, including detention and punishment, paving the way for the spread of societal violence presented as false substitutes for justice.
The organization emphasized that more dangerous than the paralysis of state institutions is the collapse of the state as a moral value in the collective consciousness, as it no longer represents an ethical or legal reference point in times of conflict, due to political and military struggles over the center of the state, the politicization of institutions, and dual authority. Within this vacuum, the logic of revenge and extrajudicial retribution is reproduced as a “legitimate” solution, when in reality it is an expression of the absence of the state rather than the presence of justice, posing a direct threat to social peace and cohesion.
SAM for Rights and Liberties warned that the repetition of extrajudicial executions and their normalization as a means of managing criminal disputes threatens the moral and legal fabric of society, erodes the principle of the sanctity of human life, and turns society into an open arena for settling scores through force, increasing the likelihood of cascading revenge conflicts that are difficult to contain.
The organization also stressed that the prolonged devastation caused by years of war and armed conflict has directly contributed to the production of such behaviors by destroying justice institutions, dismantling legal value systems, and accumulating collective psychological trauma, making violence appear as a “comprehensible” option in the absence of the state, while in reality it represents one of the most dangerous outcomes of comprehensive collapse threatening social cohesion and the future of civil peace.
SAM underscored that the execution in Shabwa constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of life under the Yemeni Constitution and the Yemeni Penal Code, and represents a violation of Yemen’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, particularly provisions protecting the right to life and guaranteeing a fair trial, in addition to contravening UN principles on the effective prevention of extrajudicial executions.
The organization called on the Yemeni authorities and local authorities in Shabwa Governorate to open an independent and transparent criminal investigation into the extrajudicial execution, hold all those involved accountable in accordance with the law, reactivate the role of the Public Prosecution, the judiciary, and judicial law enforcement bodies, prevent the handover of any suspect to non-official entities, and take serious steps to end the proliferation of weapons and militias and restore the state’s legitimate monopoly on the use of force.
SAM for Rights and Liberties concluded by stressing that the continuation of extrajudicial executions amid militia chaos and competition over state authority poses a direct threat to social unity and security, undermines the foundations of the state as a legal and moral reference, and fuels an endless cycle of violence, necessitating urgent and serious action to restore the rule of law and protect human dignity in Yemen.