A man from al Qseir city in west of Homs governorate, named Mahmoud Faisal Qarqouz, born in 1970, was arrested by Syrian regime forces in 2013, when he visited the Criminal Security Branch in al Wa’er neighborhood in Homs city to obtain an ID card to replace one he’d lost. Following his arrest, Abdul Hadi was transferred to a number of different prisons during his detention, with the last prison being Sydnaya Military Prison in Damascus suburbs governorate. On December 1, 2021, his family was informed of his death. SNHR 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 one of the regime’s detention centers in Damascus city.
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.
