Moutasem Fadel Qanatri, born in 1995, from Teir Ma’lla village in the northern suburbs of Homs governorate, was arrested by Syrian regime forces in 2019 while passing through the ’26 Brigade Checkpoint’ in the village. Moutsem, who had previously agreed upon a settlement with the regime, has been classified as forcibly disappeared almost ever since his arrest, with regime forces denying having detained him and allowing nobody, even a lawyer, to visit him. On February 14, 2022, his family learned that he had died inside a Syrian regime forces detention center, We have obtained information confirming that he was in good health when arrested, which suggests that it’s probable that he died due to torture and lack 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, they 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.
