Fouad Muhammad Mershed al Ibrahim, a former fighter with a faction of the Armed Opposition in Daraa governorate, from al Ghadafa village in the eastern suburbs of Idlib governorate, was arrested by Syrian regime forces in 2018 while he was passing through a checkpoint in al Qtaifa city in Damascus suburbs governorate on his way from Daraa governorate to Idlib governorate, despite having agreed to a settlement of his status. Since then, he has been classified as forcibly disappeared, with the Syrian regime denying his arrest and preventing anyone, even a lawyer, from visiting him. On November 25, 2020, SNHR received information confirming that he had died in custody. Our data from numerous sources confirms that he was in good health at the time of his arrest, indicating that he probably died due to torture in Seydnaya Military Prison.
SNHR has received confirmation that Syrian regime forces didn’t hand over his body to his family; this is standard practice for the regime, with the bodies of the majority of detainees who die in its detention centers being disposed of through mass cremations. Since the whereabouts of these prisoners’ remains is unknown and they are not handed over to their relatives, they continue to be classified as being among the forcibly disappeared.
SNHR can confirm that at least 130,689 Syrian citizens are still detained or forcibly disappeared in the regime’s detention centers, constituting a grave threat to the detainees’ wellbeing, given the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
SNHR notes that at least 14,269 Syrian citizens have died due to torture in Syrian regime forces’ detention center.
