[Jpost] Levi Salem Musa Marhabi was arrested for aiding a Jewish family to make aliyah.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called for the immediate and unconditional release of Levi Salem Musa Marhabi, a Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
i Jew who is being held by Iranian-backed Iran's Houthi sock puppets
 ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth . Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
militia in Yemen.
In a statement issued by the US Department of State on Tuesday, Pompeo said that the United States "stands with the Yemeni Jewish community" in calling for Marhabi’s release.
"Mr. Marhabi has been wrongfully detained by the Houthi militia for four years, despite a court ordering his release in September 2019," Pompeo said. "His health continues to deteriorate as he languishes in a Sanaa prison, where the threat of contracting COVID-19 is a real possibility."
He added: "Mr. Marhabi is one member of an ever-shrinking community of Yemeni Jews, who have been an important part of Yemen’s diverse social fabric for thousands of years. We call on the Houthis to respect religious freedom, stop oppressing Yemen’s Jewish population, and immediately release Levi Salem Musa Marhabi."
This is not the first time an American official has called for Marhabi’s release. In August, Elan Carr, America’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, posted a call for Marhabi’s release on Twitter, writing: "The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have a record of persecuting religious minorities. Levi Salem Musa Marhabi, a member of Yemen’s small Jewish community, has endured 4 years in prison despite a legal order for his release. We join in calling for his immediate release."
According to a report in Ami magazine, Marhabi was arrested for aiding a Yemeni Jewish family to make aliyah, as the family brought with them a very rare deerskin Torah scroll, claimed by some to be 800 years old and considered by the Yemeni authorities to be a national treasure. 
|
