Yemen’s Houthi rebels are waging a campaign of persecution against the country’s Baha’i minority and have already sentenced one of the community’s leaders to death, activists have warned.

The Baha’i faith is a small monotheistic religion which began in Iran in the 1800s and whose followers face regular discrimination in the Middle East for their beliefs and because their headquarters is in Israel.

Yemen’s Baha’i community has been harassed for years but activists say their situation is becoming increasingly perilous under the rule of the Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels, who took control of the capital Sanaa in 2015.

This month the Houthis issued a death sentence for Hamed bin Haydara, a 54-year-old Baha’i man. Houthi authorities accuse him of forging official documents and spying for Israel, charges which he and his family deny.

Mr Haydara was arrested in 2013 by the Yemeni government but the Houthis have continued his imprisonment and issued the death sentence on January 2 without allowing him into the hearing.