Raed Fawwaz al-Hamad, a 58-year-old member of the Mukafhat al-Irhab (Counterterrorism) group, a local body in Suwayda governorate unaffiliated with Syrian regime forces, from al-Hreisa village in the eastern suburbs of Suwayda governorate, was arrested on June 9, 2022, by the Syrian regime’s Internal Security forces in a raid on Khazma village in the southeastern suburbs of Suwayda governorate. He was taken to the regime’s Raid Division Branch (215) in Damascus city, and has been forcibly disappeared ever since, with the Syrian regime denying his detention and refusing to allow anyone to visit him even lawyers. On January 29, 2023, his family learned of his death via a former detainee who was released on June 10, 2022. Raed’s body was returned to his family at the Suwayda City National Hospital on January 30, 2023.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights stresses that around 135,253 Syrian citizens are still arrested and/or forcibly disappeared in regime detention centers. We are seriously concerned for their fate.
It should be also noted that around 14,475 Syrian citizens have died due to torture in the Syrian regime detention centers.