Syrian Democratic Forces raided the cities of al Sh-heil and al Bseira in the eastern suburbs of Deir Ez-Zour governorate on July 17. SNHR has documented that 20 civilians were arrested and taken to an undisclosed location.
The arrests were conducted without any legal arrest warrants being issued by a court, and no members of the detainees’ families were informed of their arrest, with the phones of those arrested being confiscated, preventing them from contacting their families or lawyers. SNHR fears that they will be subjected to torture and ultimately classified as forcibly ‘disappeared’ like approximately 85 percent of those detained people.
SNHR notes that about 3,337 Syrian citizens are still detained or forcibly disappeared in the SDF’s detention centers, constituting a grave threat to their wellbeing given the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
