Mustafa Shahadi al Deik, born in 1953, from Kafrouma village in the southern suburbs of Idlib governorate was arrested by Syrian regime forces on January 28, 2012, in a raid on his home, and has been classified as forcibly disappeared almost ever since that date, with regime forces denying his detention and not allowing anyone, even a lawyer, to visit him. On February 13, 2022, Syrian regime forces informed his family through a lawyer that he had died in a detention center in Damascus on August 6, 2013. We have information confirming that he was in good health at the time of his arrest, indicating that he probably died due to torture and neglect of healthcare.
SNHR notes 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 relatives, 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, particularly 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 center.
