The Chief of the Bureau of Deir Ez-Zour Civil Council, named as Zaher al Hamid, from al Sa’wa village which is administratively a part of al Kesra town in the western suburbs of the governorate, was arrested by members of the Syrian Democratic Forces’ Internal Security Forces on September 8, 2020, during a raid on his home in the village and taken to an undisclosed location.
SNHR notes that no member of Zaher’s family was informed of his arrest, and his phone was taken from him, preventing him from contacting his family. SNHR fears that he will be subjected to torture and ultimately classified as forcibly ‘disappeared’ like approximately 85 percent of all those detained in Syria.
SNHR notes that approximately 3,337 Syrian citizens are still detained or forcibly disappeared in the SDF’s detention centers, constituting a grave threat to their wellbeing given the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
