On January 23, 2023, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrested 12 civilians in Raqqa city, including the imam of a mosque in the city, over their participation in an anti-SDF protest in the city’s Douar al-Na’im neighborhood, which followed the killing of a woman and her daughter by SDF personnel on January 16, 2023. They were taken to an undisclosed location.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) notes that none of these detainees’ families were notified of their arrest, while their phones were seized following their arrest, and they have not been allowed to contact their families. SNHR is concerned that they may be subjected to torture in detention and may go on to become yet another enforced disappearance case, with 85% of all those detained falling into this category.
We call for the provision of reparations for the victims and their families, both materially and morally, and call on all parties to put an end to all arbitrary detentions whose only purpose is to spread mass fear and extort people. We also call for the fate of the thousands of persons forcibly disappeared by the SDF to be revealed.
