A former fighter with a faction of the Armed Opposition, named as Yasin Ali al Ghazali, from Qerfa village in the eastern suburbs, was arrested by Syrian regime forces in 2019 in Damascus city, despite being amongst those who had agreed on a settlement previously. Since then, he has been classified as forcibly disappeared, with the Syrian regime denying his arrest and preventing anyone, even a lawyer, from visiting him. On February 9, 2021, his family was informed that he is registered as dead in the Civil Registry. SNHR believes that the probable cause of his death was torture in a regime detention center.
SNHR has received confirmation that Syrian regime forces failed to 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 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 notes that at least 14,269 Syrian citizens have died due to torture in Syrian regime forces’ detention center.
