A man, identified as Farouq Sheikh al-Arad born in 1971 from Bab Touma neighborhood in Damascus city, was arrested on July 2, 2023, by Syrian regime forces at a checkpoint known as Mash-ham Amer Checkpoint at the entrance of al-Hajar al-Asswad city in southern Damascus governorate. Farouq was
arrested when he was attempting to enter al-Jazira neighborhood in al-Hajar al-Asswad city to check on his home. He was taken to an undisclosed location.
The arrest was carried out without any court-issued legal warrant being presented. Farouq’s family was not informed of his arrest, while his phone was seized, and he has not been allowed to contact his family or a lawyer.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) is concerned that he may be subjected to torture in
detention and may go on to become yet another case of enforced disappearance, with 85 percent of all those detained falling into this category.
We call for the provision of both material and moral reparations for Farouq and all other victims of such detentions and for their families, 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 on the regime to reveal the fate of thousands of people forcibly disappeared in its detention centers, about whose fate we are seriously concerned.
