A man from the Bab al Sbaa neighborhood of Homs city, named as Abdul Hadi al Masri, was arrested by Syrian regime forces on July 21, 2011, during a raid on his home in the neighborhood. Following his arrest, Abdul Hadi was transferred to a number of different prisons during his detention, with the last prison being Homs Central Prison in Homs city. On October 22, 2021, Syrian regime forces informed his family of his death in Homs Central Prison due to infection with the COVID-19 coronavirus.
SNHR has received confirmation that Syrian regime forces failed to 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 families, these detainees continue to be classified as being among the forcibly disappeared.
SNHR can confirm that at least 131,469 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 14,360 Syrian citizens have died due to torture in Syrian regime forces’ detention center.
