A man from Kafr Laha village in the northern suburbs of Homs governorate, named as Majd Tarif al Abdullah, was arrested in 2019 by Syrian regime forces as he was returning from Turkey to Syria via the Kasab border crossing in the northern suburbs of Latakia governorate. 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 September 11, 2021, his family was informed of his death. 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 one of the regime’s detention centers in Damascus city.
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 families, these detainees continue to be classified as being among the forcibly disappeared.
SNHR confirms that Syria is an unsafe country for the return of refugees, with arrests, enforced disappearances, and torture, mainly by the Syrian regime, all being ongoing practices.
SNHR notes that at least 14,338 Syrian citizens have died due to torture in Syrian regime forces’ detention center.
