On Sunday, August 17, 2025, local residents found the body of Dr. Muhammad Adnan Samkari, an 82-year-old internal medicine specialist from Damascus Governorate who resided in Latakia City, in the Damsarkho area of the Latakia countryside, an area under the control of the transitional government. Signs of gunfire and torture were found on his body.
According to information obtained by the Syrian Network for Human Rights from reliable local sources, Dr. Mohammed Samkari was kidnapped after leaving his home in the city of Latakia on April 29, 2025, by an armed group seeking to extract a ransom. However, contact with the kidnappers was lost the next day after the Internal Security Forces arrested one of their members. His body was found nearly three and a half months after his abduction.
As of this writing, the identity of the party responsible for the crime has not been confirmed. We are continuing our investigations, including reviewing and gathering more evidence and information. Therefore, we hope that anyone with information or details related to this incident will provide them to us via our official email address: [email protected]
Legal Conclusions:
- The discovery of the body of Dr. Mohammed Samkari, bearing signs of gunshot wounds and torture, after he was abducted near his home without any recorded armed conflict, arrest warrant, or any judicial process, indicates the possibility of his being subjected to extrajudicial execution. This constitutes a flagrant violation of Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to life.
- The victim’s disappearance for nearly three and a half months without knowing his fate, and then his being found murdered, constitutes a form of enforced disappearance, which is prohibited under the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
- Given that the area is under the control of the transitional government, the occurrence of this crime within its jurisdiction without preventive measures constitutes a failure to implement the state’s duty to protect the right to life and personal security. This violates the principle of the “duty to protect,” which obliges authorities to prevent violations in areas under their control.
Syrian Network for Human Rights Recommendations:
- Open an urgent, impartial, and transparent criminal investigation to identify those responsible for the killing of Dr. Mohammed Samkari, with the involvement of independent forensic experts, and make the results of the investigation public.
- The transitional government assumes its security responsibilities by activating monitoring and response mechanisms to protect civilians in rural areas and intensifying patrols in areas with civilian activity.
- Providing urgent compensation to the victims’ families, including material and moral support, as well as psychological and social support for their families, as they are victims of extrajudicial killing.
- Establish a database of unidentified killings and enforced disappearances to identify patterns and facilitate future legal accountability measures, within the framework of legal justice.
