Michigan – The American Center for Justice (ACJ) stated that the killing of the elderly Sheikh Saleh Hantoos (71 years old) in the village of Al-Bayda, Al-Salafiyah District, Raymah Governorate, on July 1, 2025, was not an isolated incident, but a deliberate and premeditated crime carried out as part of a systematic campaign targeting scholars, mosque preachers, and Quran teachers on ideological and sectarian grounds. The Center stressed that this constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
According to ACJ’s newly released report, “The Escalating Violence”, the attack was executed by the Houthi group with nearly 2,000 heavily armed fighters. The military operation lasted for 18 continuous hours and ended with the killing of Sheikh Hantoos inside his home, followed by his forced nighttime burial without allowing his family or the local community to hold a funeral. The assault was accompanied by serious violations, including killings, injuries, abductions, enforced disappearances, the terrorizing of civilians, forced displacement, house raids and looting, and the destruction of civilian property.
The Center’s field team documented more than 89 violations during the incident, including one killing, four injuries, the abduction of 12 civilians (among them four children), the forced displacement of 20 families, the storming and complete destruction of three homes, and partial damage to several houses, vehicles, and places of worship. Women, children, and the elderly suffered extreme terror and deep psychological trauma as a result of shelling and direct assaults within their homes.
The report confirmed that this crime is part of a systematic pattern of violations committed by the Houthis since 2014 against mosque preachers, imams, and Quran teachers. ACJ has documented hundreds of cases of killings, arbitrary arrests, torture, and enforced disappearances targeting religious figures and educators on sectarian and ideological grounds.
In light of these findings, ACJ called on the international community and the United Nations to take urgent action to stop systematic violations against civilians in Yemen, to ensure the immediate release of all forcibly disappeared persons, and to open a transparent international investigation into the killing of Sheikh Saleh Hantoos and the associated violations. The report stressed that this constitutes an extrajudicial killing and a war crime that does not lapse with time.
The Center further emphasized the need to hold all perpetrators accountable and to ensure that they do not escape justice, urging that the case be referred to international judicial mı . It reaffirmed the rights of victims and their families to redress, compensation, and restoration of dignity, alongside the responsibility of the state and the international community to rebuild affected areas and guarantee non-repetition of such crimes.
The report concluded by affirming that the killing of Sheikh Hantoos in “The Escalating Violence” represents a stark example of the Houthis’ systematic violence against their ideological and religious opponents. Remaining silent in the face of such crimes, it warned, is a stain on the conscience of humanity and makes justice and accountability an urgent and unavoidable necessity.
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