The mysterious disappearance of Sharif Mobley in Yemen

The mysterious disappearance of Sharif Mobley in Yemen
Yemen's war is shaped by human stories that are overshadowed by macro-political narratives. The disappearance of Sharif Mobley in Sanaa is one of those stories, writes Sophia Akram.
5 min read
03 Aug, 2015
Sharif Mobley was abducted in Sana’a in 2010. (AFP)

On 26 January 2010, a US-born father of two of Somali origin was taken from his street where he was residing in Sana'a, Yemen by eight unarmed men in Balaclavas.

He was shot in the leg and thrown into a van, taken to an unknown location, beaten and questioned. He was threatened with further torture and rape in a Yemeni jail, with the same promised for his wife.

His captors? The law enforcement officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and their assailants, the Yemeni security services. For Mobley, there wasn't even the console of law and order coming to his aide as he was playing victim to the abuse of the only power he could have sought redress from.

The two agents interrogating Mobley identified themselves as Matt and Khan from the FBI and Department of Defence respectively. They wanted to know about Anwar Al-Awlaki and another al Qaeda preacher; both of whom were killed in US drone strikes.

Mobley went to Yemen from the US in order to study Islam and Arabic. But years 2009 -2010 saw a crackdown by the Yemeni Government on Al Qaeda - since re-branded, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The crackdown was coerced by the US and Saudi Arabia. They ordered the Yemeni government to take action after several AQAP attacks.

According to the media, Mobley's was an Al-Qaeda suspect charged with terrorism. But he was never arrested.

He asked for a lawyer. He was refused one. He was moved from one black site to another and beaten by Yemeni guards to the point that he was hospitalised. The terrorism accusations faded away as did the Americans.

While Sharif was in hospital, the Yemeni authorities charged him with murder of a guard, who they claimed he killed in an attempt to escape. Lawyers with help from human rights NGO, Reprieve, have been representing Sharif despite attempts have been made to hold each trial without him present.

     For Mobley, there wasn't even the console of law and order coming to his aide as he was playing victim to the abuse of the only power he could have sought redress from.



Reprieve carried out Freedom of Information Act litigation to retrieve documents that provided key evidence of the US involvement in Sharif's disappearance.

However, officials deny this. Yet a separate source also confirmed this to NBC news. And the Attorney General's office has said that Mobley's detention was politically motivated rather than anything else. On convincing a Yemeni judge to hold trial to deliberate the evidence, Sharif was taken away again, on the eve of the court hearing in February 2014.

The silence from Washington is deafening

Nobody has seen him since February and the last time lawyers saw him was through a prison fence. The US gave up on communicating with him from December 2014 and packed up the embassy in February this year due to the instability. They however, left Sharif Mobley behind.

The family was left in despair until his sister, Beyah, facilitated phone calls for Mobley by wiring money to his guards. He was able to update them on his health and his treatment, neither of which were optimum.

But the most concerning was perhaps the fact that Sharif, held underground in a basement, could hear something above, something of anti-war craft firing at Saudi planes trying to bomb the prison.

The last time Sharif's family heard from him was in a phone call after Houthi rebels took over the prison and he feared they would kill him. He told them he was being kept in a prison on Hadda street but after a Saudi airstrike on the prison killed dozens, no one knows where Sharif is now and the silence from Washington is deafening.

Sharif's sister decided to act further after American journalist, Casey Coombs, was released through negotiations by the US with the Houthis at the end of May 2015.

     The US gave up on communicating with him from December 2014 and packed up the embassy in February this year due to the instability. They however, left Sharif Mobley behind.


She asked American diplomats to help do the same for her brother. But she got the same unrelenting banal response that they could not help because they have no embassy in Sana'a anymore and she was referred to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

No American left behind?

Sharif Mobley is an American citizen. The lack of closure surrounding his circumstances is an injustice unnecessary to bear by Mobley's long-suffering family, which could be partly alleviated if the silence was broken on exactly what US officials know about what happened.

The US involvement in Yemen has spanned the course of the formerly ascribed, War on Terror. AQAP were a group considered most likely to attempt transnational attacks against the US and the operation has been merciless.

Extrajudicial action including unlawful detentions, extraordinary rendition, target killings and drone strikes have defined this operation. And its biggest problem is that no one is placed on trial and the normal channels of justice have been abandoned. Drone strikes have not diminished in light of the inflamed hostilities.

The US administration needs to publicly and transparently disclose details of its endeavours overseas; including legal justifications of who they kill and why.

Two months have passed without any hints or news about Mobley's fate. Sharif, like many others disappeared, need to be accounted for and asked about. The government can still be pressured and Reprieve can still help attain answers with help from the public.



Akram is a researcher and communications professional with a special interest in human rights particularly across the Middle East and Asia.


Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of al-Araby al-Jadeed, its editorial board or staff.