A man, identified as 26-year-old Abdul Latif Muhi al-Din Tou’ma from Kanaker town in western rural Damascus governorate, was arrested on March 9, 2024, at the Immigration and Passport Department in Damascus city while he was trying to obtain travel documents. Abdul Latif, who had agreed to settle his security situation at the end of 2023, was then taken to an undisclosed location.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) notes that the arrest was carried out without any court-issued legal warrant being presented. Abdul Latif’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 since then.
SNHR is concerned that he may be subjected to torture in detention and may go on to become yet another forcibly disappeared person, with 85 percent of all those detained falling into this category.
We call for the provision of both material and moral reparations for Abdul Latif 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.
