Two brothers from Tseel town in the northwest of Daraa governorate, named as Rami and Wasim Muhammad Omar al Hayek, were arrested in 2020 by Syrian regime forces during a raid on their workplace, an animal feed factory in the north of the town, despite both being amongst those who previously agreed on a settlement. Since then, they have been classified as forcibly disappeared, with the Syrian regime denying their arrests and preventing anyone, even a lawyer, from visiting them. On December 21, 2021, as their family was trying to visit them, they were notified of Rami’s death in Seydnaya Military Prison and two days later on December 23, they were notified of Wasim’s death in the same prison. SNHR’s data from numerous sources confirms that both men were in good health at the time of their arrest, indicating that they probably died due to torture in Seydnaya Military Prison.
SNHR has received confirmation that Syrian regime forces failed to hand over the men’s bodies to their 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 returned 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.
