A man from Aqrab village in Hama Governorate southern suburbs, named as Abdul Halim Touqaj, was arrested on August 15, 2019 by member of the Political Security of the Syrian Regime forces when he passed a checkpoint at the Syrian-Lebanese borders “Al Arida Border Crossing” as he returned from Lebanon, since then he became enforced to disappear, as the Syrian Regime denied his arrest, and didn’t allow anyone, even his lawyer to visit. On August 29, 2020, SNHR received information confirming his death on January 8, 2020, we also have information that he was in good health at the time of his arrest, which means it’s highly likely that he died due to torture in a Syrian Regime’s detention center.
We note that the Syrian Regime didn’t hand over his body to his family; this is standard practice for the regime with the majority of detainees who die in its detention centers, whose bodies are disposed of through mass cremations, and all those victim whose bodies aren’t handed over, continue to be classified among the forcibly disappeared persons.
