A man, identified as 50-year-old Walid Mohammad Mohammad from Sa’arinjka (administratively part of Afrin city in northwestern Aleppo governorate), was arbitrarily arrested on Saturday, April 26, 2025, by personnel from the General Security, which is affiliated with the transitional government’s Ministry of Interior, in Izaz city in northern rural Aleppo governorate. The area is under the control of the transitional government in Syria.
According to information obtained by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) from reliable local sources, General Security personnel stopped Walid at a checkpoint as he was passing through Izaz city coming back from Sa’arinjka village, from which he was displaced in 2017. The personnel arrested Sami on claims of working with Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), without showing a legal warrant or judicial order justifying the arrest. As of this writing, his current whereabouts or causes of arrest remain unknown.
SNHR calls on the Syrian transitional government to immediately disclose the fate of Walid Mohammad and release him unless he is facing legally valid charges. We also call for launching an investigation into this arrest and holding accountable those responsible for this arrest.
SNHR must also stress that arbitrary arrests constitute a blatant violation of international human rights law, and only aim to spread panic among civilians and extort families. We also call for ending all forms of unlawful detention and compensating the victims and their families both materially and morally.
