A 13-year-old boy, identified as Sattam Wahid al-Rajab from Heymar Labda town, which is affiliated with Manbij city in the eastern suburbs of Aleppo governorate, was arrested on July 21, 2023, by Syrian regime forces personnel at the Abaja Checkpoint near Abu Hanaya village in al-Salamiya area in the eastern suburbs of Hama governorate, while he was returning from Lebanon. He was taken to an undisclosed location.
The arrest was carried out without any court-issued legal warrant being presented. Sattam’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 Sattam 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. We are seriously concerned about their fates.
