A man, identified as 39-year-old Suleiman Jouma Mohammad from Ba’iya village, administratively affiliated with Afrin city in northwestern Aleppo governorate, was arrested on January 24, 2024, by personnel from the Syrian National Army’s (SNA) Military Police at a checkpoint set up at Afrin’s southern entrance. He was then taken to an undisclosed location.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) notes that Suleiman’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 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 the SNA to reveal the fate of thousands of people forcibly disappeared at its hands.
