Blatant provocation in Taiz: the Brotherhood honors a killer while suppressing calls for justice
In a move described as one of the most provocative and a clear blow to the principles of justice, militias affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood in the city of Taiz have taken a dangerous step that reflects their disregard for victims’ blood and their growing dominance over local authority. They publicly honored a convicted killer while simultaneously carrying out a systematic crackdown on those demanding retribution.
Local sources and eyewitnesses, quoted by Al-Montasaf Net, said that prominent Brotherhood leaders — led by the first deputy governor, Abdel Qawi Al-Makhlafi — took part in a grand funeral procession for Mohamed Sadiq, accused and convicted in the murder of former head of the Cleanliness Fund, Iftihan Al-Mashhari.
The matter did not stop at the funeral. The militia deliberately hung large posters of the killer across the city’s main streets — a step activists saw as an explicit declaration that the group adopts criminals, provides them political and military protection, and openly challenges all legal and moral values.
This Brotherhood show of force came after a harsh security campaign targeting the so-called “Justice Square,” where security forces loyal to the Islah Party stormed the area and removed the tents of protesters who had, for weeks, been demanding the arrest of fugitive killers and an end to the party’s control over citizens’ homes.
Observers believe that dispersing the sit-in by force aims to silence any voice calling for justice or exposing crimes committed by the armed factions affiliated with the Brotherhood camp — factions that have turned the city into a “private fiefdom” where rights are violated and perpetrators are shielded.
These actions have sparked widespread anger among residents of Taiz, who expressed shock at seeing images of killers displayed over the city while those demanding their rights are jailed or mistreated.
Activists say raising the image of the killer, Mohamed Sadiq, is an insult to the martyr Al-Mashhari and her family and destroys what remains of the judiciary’s authority.
Civil groups warned that this criminal approach of protecting “thugs” linked to the organization fuels vendettas and threatens to ignite the social situation inside the besieged city.
These events once again demonstrate that the Brotherhood in Taiz now functions as a system that protects organized crime, where local authority and militia overlap to entrench a reality of lawlessness.
