SANAA — A Houthi-controlled court in Yemen sentenced 19 people to death after convicting them of collaborating with the Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the Iranian-backed rebels for over a decade. The Specialized Criminal Court in the capital, Sanaa, handed down the verdict, which can be appealed.

The defendants were convicted of establishing an armed group that provided support to the Saudi-led coalition between 2015 and 2023. They carried out attacks against Houthi-manned checkpoints and security facilities in the southern province of Dhale.

Four other defendants received prison terms ranging between two and 10 years. Charges against five additional defendants were dropped after their deaths.

Yemen entered civil war in 2014 when the Houthis seized Sanaa and much of northern Yemen and forced the government into exile. The Saudi-led coalition, which until recently included the United Arab Emirates, intervened in 2015 in an attempt to restore the government to power.

The rebels have imprisoned thousands of people in areas under their control, including United Nations staffers. Courts in Houthi-controlled territory have previously sentenced people accused of collaborating with the Saudi-led coalition after trials that rights groups criticized as unfair.

In November, a Sanaa court convicted 17 people of spying for foreign governments and sentenced them to death. In September 2021, the rebels executed nine people who had been convicted of involvement in the killing of senior Houthi official Saleh al-Samad in an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition in April 2018.