Dr. Taher Abdullah Abdul Jabbar Al-Qubati (48 years) is spending the fourteenth consecutive month in the Southern Transitional Council detention center supported by the United Arab Emirates, amid reports that he was subjected to severe torture that made him lose the ability to speak and move.
The Emirati-backed Transitional Militia kidnapped Dr. Al-Qubati on July 20, 2020 from Al-Alam checkpoint, the eastern entrance to the temporary capital of Aden, while he was returning from the city of Seiyun in Hadramawt with his wife, and he was taken to an unknown location, and charged with plotting a coup.
Reports clarified that Al-Qubati was placed in the “Tawahi” prison of the UAE, noting that “since the arrest of Dr. Al-Qubati in August, his family has not been allowed to visit him or check on his health.”
Al-Qubati was subjected to severe torture in Al-Tawahi prison, where he was placed in a private solitary confinement cell called Al-Daghatah (Emirati), an area of half a meter, and he was forbidden to make any contact or visit. He was then taken outside Yemen, and it is widely believed that he was taken to the United Arab Emirates to complete the investigation with him.
Al-Qubati is an academic with a doctorate degree in analytical chemistry with distinction, on the environmental situation of heavy elements and their impact on humans in the city of Aden, and he is an assistant professor of analytical chemistry, a member of the faculty at Sabir College, and head of the scientific office of the chemistry department there.
Premeditated crime:
Al-Qubati’s house was previously raided on August 21, 2019, by the Transitional Council in Aden under the pretext of forcibly arresting his wife, son and others, according to a statement by Sam Organization for Rights and Freedoms, indicating that the “transitional” kidnapped three students from his relatives who were staying in the house, They also kidnapped a person called Sadiq Khalil and others “for nothing except because of their proximity to the doctor.”
The house was raided by gunmen on board three patrols, and the attackers not only arrested those close to AlQubati, but also looted some of the house’s contents.
According to the only detainee who left after his arrest: “Before the three patrols leave, another group of gunmen came on board two other patrols and stayed next to the house for two consecutive days.”
On the third day, the gunmen left al-Qubati house and confiscated a “Corolla” car that was parked in the yard of the house.
The organization quotes sources close to Al-Qubati as saying that “the arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances of individuals related to the doctor did not stop as a force affiliated with Awsan Al-Anashli (a leader in the Transitional Council) raided the home of Mahmoud Al-Qadi and kidnapped his son Idris, an employee at the University of Science and Technology in Aden, and confiscated papers, cash, and telephones, and looted Mahmoud al-Qadi’s car and his son Idris’s car.
The sources say that “Al-Qubati was transferred outside Yemen, and it is widely believed that he was taken to the United Arab Emirates to complete the investigation with him.”
The organization considered the transfer of Al-Qubati outside the country as “a clear and serious violation of the principle of sovereignty if it is correct, and the Yemeni authorities have a constitutional duty to ensure the place of his detention.”
Yemenis demanded the transitional council forces and local authorities in Aden governorate to immediately disclose the fate of Dr. Al-Qubati and allow his family to visit him and check on his health.
