Forced theft ... Al Houthi militia begins a new campaign of taxes on citizens
English - Sunday 21 February 2021 الساعة 01:37 pm
Sanaa, NewsYemen, Exclusive:
The Houthi militia, the Iranian arm in Yemen, continues to impose financial levies on citizens outside the framework of the constitutional and legal texts and collect them through the use of methods of force and coercion.
The entities affiliated with the Ministry of Interior managed by Abd al-Karim Amir al-Din al-Houthi (uncle of the militia leader) are among the most prominent institutions that engage in robbery and theft of citizens ’money by illegal means.
The Houthi militia launched a campaign to pursue and stop unnumbered vehicles and take them with their owner to yards designated to complete the customs operations of previously collected vehicles at entry points under the control of the legitimate government, and issue numbers for these vehicles.
He told NewsYemen, Muhammad Saleh, the owner of a minibus: that the Houthi militia drove him from the Sixtieth Street in Sanaa to the square adjacent to the Al-Saleh Mosque, under the pretext that his bus did not have a fare number, and there he underwent by force procedures described as an organized looting operation by traffic officials of the Houthi militia.
He added: All the papers of the bus, which I own and support my family with, are intact except for not having a number, which is something that the militia members exploited and forced me to pay more than one hundred and fifty thousand riyals in exchange for a fare number, although the legal costs of obtaining a number do not exceed four Thousand and four hundred riyals.
He pointed out that the militia members use methods of threatening and threatening to confiscate your car or bus and detain them and impose a fine on what they call the delay in the process of numbering the vehicle for every day that passes since your detention, and this fine reaches ten thousand riyals per day, which compels many to submit To extort the militias, go along with their plunder and pay the sums they demand, no matter how large.
According to the sources, the Sanaa Traffic Department practices systematic looting of citizens' funds under various names, in addition to collecting these funds in ways that violate the law, noting that despite the appointment of the Houthi militia leader, Colonel Muhammad Al-Mansour, as director of the capital's traffic, his powers are confiscated by the traffic supervisor. And the leader of the militia, whose name is Abu Yahya.
According to the sources, (Abu Yahya) is the one who supervises the collection process (35%) of the traffic revenues for the militias and supplying them to unknown accounts, and in most cases they are distributed among senior leaders in the militias, including Interior Minister Abdul Karim Amir al-Din al-Houthi, and the office of a leader The militia, Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, and the so-called war effort.
Similar levies in the Civil Status Authority
In addition, the Civil Status and Civil Registry Authority, which is under the control of the Houthis in Sana'a, imposes measures similar to that practiced by the Traffic Department in the process of plundering citizens' funds.
Citizens told "NewsYemen" that the cost of obtaining an ID card legally amounts to one thousand and three riyals, while it is cut by the Civil Status Authority, which is run by the Houthi militia, for an amount exceeding ten thousand riyals.
They pointed out that the militias have cut temporary identity papers called (questionnaire) for more than two million citizens during the past four years under the pretext of the lack of automatic identity cards, as each citizen paid more than ten thousand riyals for the questionnaire.
They added, and now the militias have asked those who received that questionnaire to replace it with the automatic card, which is supposed to be done without paying any new fees, given that the fees for obtaining the ID document had been paid in advance, but the militias imposed on every citizen to replace the questionnaire with the automatic card. An official payment of three thousand five hundred riyals is in violation of the law, and if the citizen wants to finish the transaction and quickly extract the card, he will have to pay more than five thousand riyals.
In addition, citizen Salim al-Din said that the amount of three thousand five hundred riyals imposed by the militias on everyone who replaces the questionnaire document with the automatic ID card turns into huge sums of up to billions, given that the number of those who obtained the questionnaire document during the four years reached two million citizens and perhaps more. , Indicating that the Capital Affairs Authority was forced to arrange replacement requests from citizens according to the years, starting from 2016AD and 2017AD, and so on due to the severe overcrowding of citizens who obtained the questionnaire document.
He added: This order applies to all transactions issued by the Civil Status Authority, as obtaining a family card costs, according to the law, a sum of one thousand riyals, while approximately ten thousand riyals are paid to extract it.
He pointed out that despite the huge sums being collected, the Civil Status Authority employees in the capital do not receive any salaries, which confirms that the militia leadership collects these funds and supplies them for the accounts and balances of the private militias in the name of supporting the war effort.
The institutions affiliated with the Houthi Ministry of Interior are a microcosm of the extent of corruption and thefts practiced by the militias in the rest of the state's institutions under various names and in violation of the constitutional texts that prohibit the imposition of any taxes or monies except by law.
