A man from al Jiza town in the eastern suburbs of Daraa governorate, Younes Abdullah al Helal al Khatib, was arrested by Syrian regime forces in 2018. Since then, he has 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 November 2, 2020, SNHR received information confirming that he had died. Our data from numerous sources confirms that he was in good health at the time of his arrest, indicating that he probably died due to torture in Seydnaya Military Prison Damascus city.
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 bodies of the majority of detainees who die in its detention centers being 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 as being among the forcibly disappeared. SNHR also notes that approximately 14,269 Syrian citizens have died due to torture in Syrian regime detention centers.
