A man from Taldao city in the northwestern suburbs of Homs governorate, named as Basel Muhammad Harfoush, was arrested in 2018 by Syrian regime forces in Taldao city although he was amongst those who had previously agreed on a settlement of his status. Since his arrest, he had been classified as forcibly disappeared, with the Syrian regime denying any knowledge of his arrest and preventing anyone, even a lawyer, from visiting him. On July 26, 2020, SNHR receive information confirming his death in a detention center while we have data confirms that he was in a good health at the time of his arrest which indicate that he probably died due to torture.
SNHR has received confirmation that Syrian regime forces didn’t hand over his body to his family; this is standard practice for the regime with the majority of detainees who die in its detention centers, whose bodies are disposed of through mass cremations. Since the whereabouts of these prisoners’ remains is unknown and they are not handed over to their relatives, they continue to be classified among the forcibly disappeared persons.
