A humanitarian aid worker, identified as 37-year-old Haytham Abdullah al-Ahmad from Manbij city in the eastern suburbs of Aleppo governorate, was arrested on May 29, 2023, by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) personnel in a raid on his home in the Tareeq Halab neighborhood in the west of the city over accusations of working with Turkey. He was taken to the SDF’s Counterterrorism Prison in Raqqa city.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) notes that Haytham’s phone was seized following his arrest, and he has not been allowed to contact his family.
SNHR is concerned that he may be subjected to torture in detention and may go on to become yet another forced disappearance case, with 85% of all those detained in Syria falling into this category.
We call for the provision of both moral and material reparations for Haytham and for all the victims and their families, and call on the SDF and all other 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 SDF to reveal the fates of thousands of people forcibly disappeared at its hands.
