Syrian regime forces carried out raids on Eqerbat town in the eastern suburbs of Hama governorate on May 3, 2021. SNHR documented that four civilians from the same family, including a retired colonel, were arrested and taken to an undisclosed location.
The arrests were conducted without any legal arrest warrants being issued by a court, with no members of the detainees’ families being informed of their arrest or whereabouts, and with their phones being confiscated, preventing them from contacting their families or lawyers. 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 131,106 Syrian citizens are still detained or forcibly disappeared in the regime’s detention centers, constituting a grave threat to the detainees’ wellbeing, especially given the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
