SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties said that the continued disappearance of Dr. Taher Abdullah Abdul Jabbar, 47, by the Transitional Council forces controlling Aden raises many concerns for his life in light of reports of being subjected to severe torture that made him lose his ability to speak and move.

The organization said that Dr. Al-Qubati, who holds a doctorate in analytical chemistry, was arrested on Monday morning, July 20, 2020, by the Transitional Council forces at Al-Alam checkpoint, the eastern entrance to the interim capital Aden, while he was returning from Seiyun in Hadramout with his wife, and was taken to an unknown place, and accused of plotting a coup!

The organization had confirmed in a previous statement issued on September 9, 2020, that the STC forces raided the homes of Dr. Al-Qubati on August 21, to arrest his wife, his son, and others. The STC militants abducted three students from his relatives who were staying in the house, also Sadiq Khalil and others, in Al-Luhum and Assila neighborhoods, only for being relatives to the doctor.

Eyewitnesses said to SAM: “They took the doctor’s relatives outside the house, after handcuffed and blindfolded them. They ordered them to lie on the ground, until shortly before the dawn prayer, and at this time the soldiers were tampering with the contents of the house and carrying them on the patrol vehicles, including sacs that contained plumbing materials. Fawzia quotes the details according to the only detainee who was released, “before the 3 vehicles leave, two others came and stationed next to the house for two days, after which the STC militants left Al-Qubati house and took with them a Corolla car that was in the yard, the second car of Dr. Al-Qubati that they confiscated in addition to the previous car that they seized with him in Al-Alam checkpoint, and after that, they raided on the homes of some friends and relatives, and tampering with the money, documents, furniture, and cars they contained.”

Others witnesses added that: “The arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances of individuals related to Dr. Al-Qubati did not stop, as a force loyal to Awsan Al-Anshali raided the house of Mahmoud Al-Qadi and abducted his son Idris, an employee at the University of Science and Technology in Aden, and confiscated documents, and cash. And phones, and Mahmoud al-Qadi's car and his son Idris's car were also looted. "

The organization confirmed that since the detention of Dr. Al-Qubati in August, his family has not been allowed to visit him or to check on his health condition, and according to sources close to Dr. Al-Qubati, he was detained in Al-Tawahi prison of the Saudi-Emirati coalition and is subjected to severe torture, as he was placed in a solitary confinement cell called Al-Daghatah “the pressure cooker” (run by Emiratis), which is one meter and a half in area, and he is denied contacts and visitation, his health condition is deteriorating, and he was denied his medicine, and the torture caused him to lose the ability to move and speak, and he was taken outside Yemen, it is widely believed that he was taken to the United Arab Emirates to continue his interrogation, which, if proved, is an explicit and serious violation to sovereignty, and the Yemeni authorities have a constitutional duty to verify the whereabouts of Dr. Al-Qubati.

SAM affirms that the Transitional Council forces and local authorities in Aden governorate must immediately reveal the fate of Dr. Al-Qubati and allow his family to visit him and check on his health, as the crime of enforced disappearance is incriminated under the law, which is the authorities’ detention of a person, and deny his detention or his whereabouts and fate.

This violation is considered as a multiple crime if the "forcibly disappeared" are subjected to any form of torture or ill-treatment, especially when they are detained outside official places of detention. The security situation may not be invoked, as the international human rights law protects basic rights, and it is the right of any arbitrary or detained or disappeared to be informed of the reasons for their detention, to be able to challenge the legality of their detention before an independent and impartial judge, and to have access to lawyers and visitation, and to review their cases regularly.