A man from al Sanamayn city in the northern suburbs of Daraa governorate, named as Ziad Ahmad al Alloush, was arrested by Syrian regime forces in 2018 while he was passing through a checkpoint in western Tafas city, located in the western suburbs of the governorate. 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 December 19, 2020, Syrian regime forces informed his family of his death and handed his body over to his family. SNHR’s data from numerous sources confirms that while he was in poor health at the time of his arrest, it’s likely that he died as a result of torture in addition to lack of healthcare.
SNHR can confirm that at least 130,758 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.
SNHR also notes that approximately 14,269 Syrian citizens have died due to torture in Syrian regime detention centers.
