A 55-year-old man from Latmin village in the northern suburbs of Hama governorate, named as Samir Na’san al Sahh, who was living in one of al Karama IDP Camps in the northern suburbs of Idlib governorate, was arrested by Syrian regime forces on October 12, 2020, while he turned back to his home in Latmin village as Syrian regime forces seized control on the village. 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 January 4, 2021, his family was notified of his death in Seydnaya Military Prison in Damascus suburbs governorate. SNHR’s 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 and lack of health care.
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’ remain unknown and they are not returned to their families, these detainees continue to be classified as being among the forcibly disappeared.
SNHR can confirm that at least 131,469 Syrian citizens are still detained or forcibly disappeared in the regime’s detention centers, constituting a grave threat to the detainees’ wellbeing, given the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
SNHR notes that at least 14,360 Syrian citizens have died due to torture in Syrian regime forces’ detention centers.
