Tribal militants have on Tuesday kidnapped the head of the first instance court in Al-Madhariba and Ras Al-Ara areas, located in Yemen’s southern province of Lahj that is under the control of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) militias.
Human rights sources confirmed that gunmen from the Al-Qa’alala tribe of Al-Sabiha area kidnapped the head of the Al-Madhariba and Ras Al-Ara court, Judge Abdulhakim Abdo Saif Al-Najashi, as well as his son Qassem, in addition to court clerk Mohammed Youssef Salem, by force of arms after intercepting their car on a coastal road.
The sources attributed the abduction of the head of the court to an attempt to pressure him to release one of the accused in a criminal case still pending for judgment.