Mystery continues to surround American held in Yemen
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Version 0 of 1. A U.S. State Department official has visited an American detained in Yemen since 2010 but cannot tell his family where he is being held, according to lawyers who say they fear for his safety. Cori Crider, a lawyer with the British legal rights group Reprieve, said Sharif Mobley, 30, a Muslim and father of three from New Jersey, was not brought to court last month for a scheduled hearing on murder charges, the fifth time this has happened in recent months. Though a State Department official called Mobley’s wife on Sept. 25 and reported having seen Mobley in prison, the official would not say exactly where he is being held, Crider said. The only clue Mobley’s family and lawyers have to his whereabouts came from a brief call he made clandestinely to his wife on Sept. 15 using a cellphone lent by a sympathetic prison guard. Mobley told his wife he was being held at a facility on a military base on Haddah Street in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. Investigators with Reprieve said that matches the description of a base run by Yemen’s security forces. He also told his wife, Nzinga Islam, that he had been tortured and feared he would be killed, his lawyers said. The circumstances surrounding Mobley’s initial detention four years ago are as murky as his recent unexplained absences from court. Mobley’s lawyers said they have not seen or spoken with their client for more than seven months. The State Department declined to talk publicly about his case, citing privacy issues. What is known is that in late January 2010, Mobley was snatched off the streets of Sanaa, where he had moved his family in 2008 saying he wanted to study Arabic and Islam. Initially, he was held on suspicion of terrorist connections. Mobley’s lawyers said he was interrogated in the hospital by two Americans who said they were with the FBI and the Defense Department. Mobley had been shot in the leg by Yemeni security forces when he was arrested. According to his attorneys, they were particularly interested in his alleged connections to al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen. Mobley never was charged with terrorism, but he was charged with murder after the Yemenis said he killed a prison guard and injured another during an attempted escape. Crider said U.S. officials do not appear to be doing anything to help Mobley. “Are they not doing anything because they’re feckless and indifferent, or are they not doing anything because they’re at fault?” she said in a telephone interview. “I do not know the answer to that question.” |