Amnesty International has asked Yemen’s Houthi militia to release four journalists sentenced to death for “espionage” in the war-torn country ahead of a court hearing on Sunday.

Abdul Khaleq Amran, Tawfiq Al-Mansouri, Harith Hamid, and Akram Al-Walidi were captured in Yemen’s Houthi-held capital Sanaa in June 2015.

“Yemen’s Houthi de facto authorities must quash the death sentences and order the immediate release of four Yemeni journalists who are facing execution following a grossly unfair trial,” the rights group said in a statement on Friday.

In April 2020, a Houthi court sentenced the four journalists to death on charges of “treason and spying for foreign states.”

“This has been a sham of a trial since the beginning and has borne a terrible toll on the men and their families,” said Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa deputy director Lynn Maalouf, according to the statement.

One of the detained men, Mansouri, is in a “critical health condition” with heart and other ailments, Amnesty said.

“Pending their overdue release, the journalists must be provided with urgent medical care — the denial of medical treatment for the seriously ill is an act of cruelty which amounts to torture and other ill-treatment,” the statement said.

Amnesty International slammed their imprisonment on “trumped-up allegations” at the time of their trial, while ‘Reporters without Borders’ termed the conviction “absolutely reprehensible.”

According to the International Federation of Journalists and the Yemeni Journalists’ Syndicate, their detention was prompted by their reporting on “human rights crimes committed by Houthis.”

On Sunday, the Specialized Criminal Appeals Division in Sanaa will hear an appeal.

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