A 70-year-old man, named as Yousef Qasem, from Nabi Sadi village which is administratively a part of al Malekiya city in the northern suburbs of Hasaka governorate, was arrested by Syrian Democratic Forces on April 29, 2021, and detained as a hostage in retaliation for his nephew being late to enroll at an SDF camp for military conscription, and taken to an undisclosed location.
SNHR notes that no member of Yousef’s family was informed of his arrest or whereabouts, with his phone being confiscated, preventing him from contacting his family. SNHR fears that he will be subjected to torture and ultimately classified as forcibly ‘disappeared’, like approximately 85 percent of all detained persons in Syria.
We can confirm that at least 3,784 Syrian citizens are still detained or forcibly disappeared in the SDF’s detention centers, constituting a grave threat to the detainees’ wellbeing, given the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
