A man, named as Ibrahim Hamzeh al Nazzal, from Hessou Ratla village which is administratively a part of al Qahtaniya town in the northern suburbs of Hasaka governorate, was arrested by Syrian regime forces along with his niece Hend Muhammad al Nazzal in September 2019 as they were passing through a checkpoint while heading from Damascus city to Hasaka city, and taken to an undisclosed location in Damascus city. The forces subsequently released Mrs. Al Nazzal in April 2020 while the fate of Ibrahim remained undisclosed, with the regime denying any knowledge of his arrest or whereabouts and preventing visits by his family or even a lawyer. On November 9, 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.
