A man, named as Azad Abdul Qader Souran, born in 1986, from Khuleilkou village which is administratively a part of Afrin city in the northwestern suburbs of Aleppo governorate, was arrested by Syrian regime forces in May 2021, as he was passing through a checkpoint in Aleppo city. 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 July 19, 2021, the Syrian regime’s Military Security forces informed his family of his death and handed them over his body from Aleppo University Hospital in Aleppo city. SNHR data from numerous sources confirms that he was in good health at the time of his arrest, indicating that he probably died due to torture in the Military Security Branch in the city.
SNHR can confirm that at least 131,178 Syrian 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.
