Two brothers, named as Mahmoud and Omar Ali Mahmoud al Kurdi, from Busra al Sham city in east of Daraa governorate, were arrested along with their father by Syrian regime forces in the city in 2012 when the brothers were aged 19 and 17 respectively. Since then, they have been classified as forcibly disappeared, with the Syrian regime denying their arrest and preventing anyone, even a lawyer, from visiting them. On June 17, 2021, their family was informed of their deaths. SNHR data from numerous sources confirms that they were in good health at the time of their arrests, indicating that they probably died due to torture in one of the regime’s detention centers.
SNHR has received confirmation that Syrian regime forces failed to hand over the father’s and sons’ bodies to their 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 families, they continue to be classified as being among the forcibly disappeared.
SNHR can confirm that at least 131, 178Syrian citizens are still detained or forcibly disappeared in the regime’s detention centers, constituting a grave threat to the detainees’ wellbeing, particularly given the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
SNHR notes that at least 14,338 Syrian citizens have died due to torture in Syrian regime forces’ detention center.
