Sanad Habis al-Najm, from Hamdan village in rural Hasaka governorate, worked as a farmer in Daraa governorate, was arrested in 2021 by Syrian regime forces at a checkpoint in al-Sheikh Miskeen city in rural Daraa governorate. His family was able to last visit him in October 2023 at Adra Central Prison in Rural Damascus ‘Rif Dimsahq’ governorate. At the end of 2023, he was transferred to Sednaya Military Prison in Rural Damascus governorate. He has been classified as forcibly disappeared ever since, with the Syrian regime denying any knowledge of his whereabouts and refusing to allow anyone, even a lawyer, to visit him. On April 24, 2024, his family learned that he had been registered as dead in the civil registry office in al-Qameshli city in northern Hasaka governorate. We can confirm he was in good health at the time of his arrest, indicating a strong possibility that he died due to torture and medical negligence in Sednaya Military Prison.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) can also confirm that Syrian regime authorities have not returned Sanad’s body to his family; this is standard practice for the regime, which has failed to return the bodies of the overwhelming majority of those who die in its detention centers to their families. Instead, the regime disposes of these bodies in mass cremations or mass burials. It should be noted that, as long as the victim’s body is not returned to his or her family, the individual in question is still classified as a forcibly disappeared person.
It is also noteworthy that approximately 136,192 Syrian citizens are still detained or forcibly disappeared in Syrian regime detention centers. We have serious concerns about their fate. We have documented the deaths of approximately 15,076 Syrian citizens due to torture in regime detention centers since March 2011.
