Syrian National Army forces carried out raids on December 20, 2020, in Ma’batli town, which is administratively a part of Afrin city in the northern suburbs of Aleppo governorate. SNHR documented the arrest of 13 civilians who were taken to an undisclosed location.
No members of the detainees’ families have been informed of their arrests or whereabouts, with these detained civilians’ phones also being confiscated, preventing them from contacting their families. SNHR fears that they will be subjected to torture and ultimately classified as forcibly ‘disappeared’, like approximately 85 percent of all detained persons in Syria.
SNHR can confirm that at least 3,262 Syrian citizens are still detained or forcibly disappeared in the Armed Opposition’s detention centers, constituting a grave threat to the detainees’ wellbeing, given the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
