Syrian Democratic Forces raided al Khayasa neighborhood in al Sh-heil city in the eastern suburbs of Deir Ez-Zour governorate on June 16, 2020. SNHR has documented the arrest of five civilians including a child who were taken to an undisclosed location.
The arrests were conducted without any legal arrest warrants being issued by a court, and no members of the detainees’ families were informed of their arrest, with the phones of those arrested being confiscated, preventing them from contacting their families or lawyers. SNHR fears that they will be subjected to torture and ultimately classified as forcibly ‘disappeared’ like approximately 85 percent of detained persons.
SNHR can confirm that at least 3,090 Syrian citizens are also still detained in the SDF’s detention centers, constituting a grave threat to the detainees’ wellbeing given the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
