A man from Harbnafseh town in the southern suburbs of Hama governorate, named as Mahmoud Turki Bakkour, was arrested by Syrian regime forces in the town in July 2018 despite being amongst those who had agreed on a settlement previously. Since then, he has been classified as forcibly disappeared, with the Syrian regime denying any knowledge of his arrest and preventing anyone, even a lawyer, from visiting him. On November 18, 2020, SNHR was informed that he had died. 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 a regime detention center.
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 relatives, they continue to be classified as being among the forcibly disappeared.
SNHR notes that at least 14,269 Syrian citizens have died due to torture in Syrian regime forces’ detention center.
