Nabil Suleiman al Asemi, a 65-year-old engineer from Dael city in the northern suburbs of Daraa governorate, is the former head of the city’s local council. Nabil was arrested by Syrian regime forces on June 25, 2020, during a raid on his home in the city and taken to an undisclosed location.
The arrest was conducted without any legal arrest warrant being issued by a court, with no member of his family being informed of his arrest or whereabouts, and while his phone was confiscated, preventing him fromى contacting any family member or a lawyer. SNHR fears that he will be subjected to torture and ultimately classified as forcibly ‘disappeared’, like approximately 85 percent of all detained persons.
SNHR can confirm that at least 130,000 Syrian citizens are still detained or forcibly disappeared in the regime’s detention centers, constituting a grave threat to the detainees’ wellbeing given the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.