The police misled public opinion...a protest in Taiz demanding the identification of the killers of Moayad Hamidi
English - Sunday 24 September 2023 الساعة 05:12 pm
Taiz, Newsyemen:
In response to a call launched by the “Reveal the Truth” campaign, dozens of people from Taiz, on Sunday, carried out a protest in front of the judiciary building in the city of Al-Turbah, to demand the arrest and punishment of the perpetrators involved in the assassination of the Director of the World Food Program, Moayad Hamidi.
On July 21, gunmen assassinated Moayad Hamidi (Jordanian national) in the city of Turbah, while he was in a restaurant eating lunch, which sparked a state of local anger, especially since it occurred close to the police station, without the security authorities doing anything.
The protest, which was located a kilometer away from the crime scene, was attended by protesters chanting phones denouncing the targeting of humanitarian and anti-terrorism personnel and demanding that the results of the investigations be revealed and that the case file be referred to the Public Prosecution to speed up the punishment of the perpetrators.
The protesters raised banners reading in Arabic and English, “No to terrorism,” “No to targeting humanitarian personnel,” “Who branded my city with terrorism,” “We will not allow crime to win,” and “Who assassinated the medicine and the loaf.”
Yemeni activists, journalists, and lawyers are making unremitting efforts to champion the case of the UN employee, Muayyad Hamidi, and accuse the authorities in Taiz of misleading local and international public opinion about arresting the officials and those involved in the sinful assassination.
A statement issued by the protest said, "It has been confirmed that the Taiz police covered their security procedures in dealing with the incident with unprecedented media misinformation, while the local and international community has not noticed any productive progress in the legal process of the case until this moment."
A day after the crime occurred, which sparked widespread local and international condemnation, the Taiz security authorities announced the arrest of the two perpetrators, who fled on a motorcycle before the number of detainees rose to more than thirty people. However, to this day, it refuses to reveal the results of the investigations and impose the harshest punishment against them.
The statement affirmed that the protest in front of the judiciary building symbolizes the need for society to take refuge in the wall of justice, indicating that this is a form of community response to the frightening ambiguity that surrounds the course of the “Moayad Hamidi” case, a ambiguity that threatens to have the opposite result: that the police detained the crime file, without detaining those it announced as the main suspects in committing it.
The statement called on the Public Prosecution to quickly assume its powers (investigation and indictment) in the case of the assassination of Moayad Hamidi, and to initiate a criminal case before the competent court to impose the punishment that the killer deserves.
It also called for obliging the police to stop extrajudicial arrests, release detainees whose involvement in the crime has not been proven and who are not wanted in connection with other criminal cases, and quickly refer those suspected of involvement to the Public Prosecution in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Penal Code.
The statement called on the communities and authorities of the most populous governorate in Yemen to mobilize and arrange a broader arrangement of roles and contributions and work together to achieve the just punishment that the killer of Moayad Hamidi deserves, redress the humanitarian damage that resulted from the condemned terrorist crime, and restore Taiz’s reputation as an attractive model for development and humanitarian work programs and repellent of terrorism.
