Three brothers, identified as Ali, Sami, and Bashar al-Kurdi from Salwa village in the northern suburbs of Idlib governorate, were arrested on June 12, 2023, by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) personnel who raided their home in the village over charges of smuggling fuel from areas controlled by the Syrian National Army (SNA) to areas under HTS’ control in the suburbs of Idlib governorate. They were taken to an undisclosed location.
The raid also led to the death of the detained men’s mother, who suffered a fatal heart attack after being assaulted by the HTS fighters during the raid as she attempted to stop them from attacking her sons and home.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) notes that the detainees’ phones were seized following their arrest, and they have not been allowed to contact their remaining family members.
SNHR is concerned that they may be subjected to torture in detention and may go on to become yet more enforced disappearance cases, with 85% of all those detained in Syria 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 fates of thousands of people forcibly disappeared at the hands of the HTS to be revealed.
