On December 12, 2024, the American Center for Justice (ACJ) reported the disappearance of 12 Yemenis during the early stages of the Syrian crisis, including five officers who were sent to study at the Aleppo Military Academy. The center stated that their fate remains unknown.

In a statement reviewed by Brān Press, the ACJ revealed that the five officers were abducted by the al-Nusra Front in September 2012 while traveling from Aleppo to Damascus. The statement indicated that these officers were coerced into making “false” confessions that were published by al-Nusra, claiming they had been sent to support the Syrian regime against rebels, despite their dispatch occurring prior to the outbreak of the Syrian uprising.

The officers were reportedly scheduled to travel by military aircraft from Aleppo to Damascus after completing their studies. However, they were prevented from boarding the plane by regime officials at the academy and were forced to travel overland.

Despite intensive mediation efforts that reached the Syrian-Turkish border in December 2012, the officers were not released, and their families continue to await any information about their whereabouts.

The missing officers are identified as Muhammad Abdu al-Maliki, Ali Hussein Salama, Hani Saleh Nizar, Hassan Muhammad al-Wahib, and Ahmad Ali Radman.

The ACJ also addressed the case of Yemeni doctor Riyad Al-Ameesi, who traveled to Syria in 2008 on a scholarship to study for the Arab Board at Damascus University. He worked in Daraya before moving to al-Mujtahid Hospital in Damascus. Al-Ameesi's whereabouts vanished a month before his final exam in early 2013.

According to communications from the Yemeni embassy and statements from his family at the time, he was arrested and sentenced to death in a military trial for treating wounded members of the Free Syrian Army and anti-regime groups. His sentence was later reduced following intervention by the Yemeni embassy during the national unity government led by Basindawa, but his fate remains unknown, and his family has been unable to obtain any updates on his condition or location since then.

In response to these developments, the ACJ called on the internationally recognized Yemeni government to fulfill its constitutional and legal responsibilities towards its forcibly disappeared citizens in Syria. The center urged the formation of a special committee to urgently address these cases and coordinate with relevant authorities, particularly the Syrian transitional government, to ensure the revelation of the missing individuals' fates and their safe return home.

The ACJ also called for a comprehensive and transparent investigation by the Syrian transitional government and for full cooperation with human rights organizations to uncover the locations and conditions of the missing individuals, working towards their immediate release.

Additionally, the ACJ appealed to Syrian revolution activists and leaders to prioritize these cases as part of their commitment to justice and the values of freedom that the revolution sought to uphold, emphasizing that the liberation of detainees and clarity on the fate of the missing is a crucial step towards building a new Syria based on justice and humanity.