On September 16, 2023, personnel from the pro-regime Abu Fadl al-Abbas Brigade militia arrested three civilians from Damascus city at a checkpoint between the two towns of al-Hjeira and Sayyidah Zainab in Rural Damascus or ‘Rif Dimshaq’ governorate, as the three were on their way to work in the Housh Blas industrial zone in the area. They were then taken to an undisclosed location.
The arrest was carried out without any court-issued legal warrant being presented. The detainees’ families were not informed of their arrest, while the detainees’ phones were seized, and they have not been allowed to contact their families or a lawyer since then.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (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 percent of all those detained falling into this category.
We call for the provision of both material and moral reparations for these detainees 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.
