Two elderly men, identified as 70-year-old Arif Hassan Mannan and 58-year-old Omar Mohammad Rashid, were arrested on April 25, 2024, by personnel from the Syrian National Army’s (SNA) Military Police who raided their houses in their home village of Medana, administratively a part of Afrin city, in northwestern Aleppo governorate, over accusations of working with Syrian Democratic Force (SDF). They were then taken to an undisclosed location.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) notes that their phones have been seized, and they have not been allowed to contact their family. We are concerned that they may be subjected to torture in detention and may go on to become another enforced disappearance case, with 85% of all those detained in Syria falling into this category.
We call for the provision of both material and moral reparations for the 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 all armed opposition factions/SNA to reveal the fate of thousands of people forcibly disappeared at its hands.
