A man from Tal Barrak village in the suburbs of Hasaka governorate, named as Suleiman Hijel, was arrested on July 16, 2021, along with his wife by Syrian Democratic Forces personnel as they were passing through a checkpoint in Serrin town, which is administratively a part of Ein al Arab city in the eastern suburbs of Aleppo governorate, while they were returning from Turkey and taken to an undisclosed location.
SNHR notes that no members of the detainees’ families were informed of their arrest or whereabouts, with their phones being confiscated, preventing them from contacting their families. SNHR fears that they will be subjected to torture and ultimately classified as forcibly ‘disappeared’, like approximately 85 percent of all detained persons in Syria.
SNHR can confirm that at least 3,796 Syrian citizens are still detained or forcibly disappeared in the SDF’s detention centers, constituting a grave threat to the detainees’ wellbeing, especially given the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
