UN demands Houthis return body of human rights office worker who died in their custody

NEW YORK CITY: The UN demanded on Friday that the Houthis return the body of Mohammed El-Shami, a Yemeni employee of its human rights office who died while detained by the militia.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric urged the Houthis to hand the body over to El-Shami’s family “without any further delay, enabling a dignified burial,” and added that nothing could justify withholding his remains from them.

“What reason could there be?” he said when asked why the Houthis would refuse to release the body. “There’s no reason for them to continue to detain 70 of our colleagues, and I cannot think of a reason why anyone would still hang on to the body of someone who’s deceased.”