The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has documented at least 162 cases of arbitrary arrests and detention in September, including two children and six women, noting that it has been the highest record of arrests since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, and that the Syrian regime doesn’t care about detainees’ lives.
The report stresses that Syrian Regime forces in September continued to prosecute Syrian citizens in connection with their political opposition and opinions, which are guaranteed by the constitution and international law, with prosecutions and arbitrary arrests affecting a number of Syrian citizens solely because they criticized the deteriorating living and economic conditions in the regime-controlled areas; among those arrested during this period have been lawyers and teachers who were detained by Syrian Regime forces in raids on their homes and workplaces. The report also documents arrests and prosecutions against citizens, including university students, in connection with their participation in anti-Syrian regime protests and activities in Sweida province previously, with most of these arrests taking place while they were passing through regime checkpoints in Damascus and Suwayda cities.
As the report reveals, Syrian Regime forces have imposed a security cordon around Kanaker town in Damascus Suburbs, targeting a number of residents for arrest upon entering or leaving the town. The regime forces also launched campaigns of mass arrests at checkpoints in Damascus Suburbs, with those detained including children and women.
Syrian Regime forces in September continued to prosecute and arrest individuals who have concluded settlements of their security status with the Syrian regime in areas that previously concluded settlement agreements with the regime; these arrests have been concentrated in Daraa province, with most occurring during campaigns of mass raids and arrests.
The report notes that it has recorded arrests targeting some refugees who illicitly returned from Lebanon by illegal methods, who have been charged with a wide range of offences and false charges related to terrorism, in addition to recording arrests of Syrian citizens by Syrian Regime forces while they were traveling from areas under the Syrian regime’s control to other areas.
The report adds that some arrests have been documented against workers involved in the field of currency exchange; the aim of these detentions is to extort ransom money from the detainees’ families, with these victims being released in exchange for huge sums of money.
In the context of cases in which individuals have been released, the report records in September that Syrian Regime forces released 14 detainees from various Syrian regions, all of whom were released from regime detention centers in Damascus. Most of these individuals were released after the end of their arbitrary sentences, with the duration of their detention ranging from four to eight years.
As the report reveals, Syrian Democratic Forces continued enforcing the group’s policies of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance throughout the month of September, targeting activists and members of civil society groups who oppose their policies, or civilians who have kinship relationships with individuals in the Armed Opposition/ the Syrian National Army. Syrian Democratic Forces also carried out campaigns of mass raids and arrests, targeting many civilians, including children, on the pretext of fighting ISIS cells. These arrests were concentrated in Deir Ez-Zour province. Also in September, SNHR documented Syrian Democratic Forces carrying out arrests/ detention targeting several families, as well as targeting several members of the same families, including elderly people, without providing clear charges, taking these detained to an undisclosed location. The report also documents in September that Syrian Democratic Forces released 18 civilians from SDF detention centers. The duration of arbitrary detention for those released ranged from eight months to two years, with most being released as a result of tribal mediation.
As for Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, the report stresses that September saw Hay’at Tahrir al Sham detaining civilians, with arrests concentrating in IDP camps, including activists working with civil society groups, media workers and lawyers, with most of these arrests occurring due to expressing their opinions criticizing the HTS’s management of areas under its control, or in connection with their participation in protests against Hay’at Tahrir al Sham. These arrests were carried out arbitrarily in the form of raids in which HTS members stormed their victims’ homes, often breaking down the doors, or by kidnapping their victims while they were travelling or passing through temporary checkpoints. The report also records detentions carried out by Hay’at Tahrir al Sham against civilians, who were charged with ‘insulting the Divine’.
The Armed Opposition/ the Syrian National Army also carried out arrests and kidnappings in September, most of which occurred on a mass scale, in many cases targeting several members of the same families, including elderly people; we also recorded detentions carried out under an ethnic pretext, with these incidents being concentrated in areas under their control in Aleppo governorate. Most of these arrests occurred without judicial authorization and without the participation of the police force, which is the legitimate administrative authority responsible for arrests and detentions through the judiciary, as well as being carried out without presenting any clear charges against those being detained.
The report explains that most of the arrests in Syria are carried out without any judicial warrant while the victims are passing through checkpoints or during raids, with the security forces of the regime’s four main intelligence services often responsible for extra-judicial detentions. The detainee is tortured from the very first moment of his or her arrest and denied any opportunity to contact his or her family or to have access to a lawyer. The authorities also flatly deny the arbitrary arrests they have carried out and most of the detainees are subsequently categorized as forcibly disappeared.
This report outlines the record of arbitrary arrests/ detention it recorded in September 2020 by the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria, as well as shedding light on the most notable individual cases and incidents of arbitrary arrest and detention that the SNHR’s team documented in September, in addition to categorizing cases and incidents of arrest according to the location of the incident. The report does not include those kidnappings and abductions in which the report was unable to identify the responsible party.
The report also documents arbitrary arrests that were subsequently categorized as enforced disappearances. A number of criteria must be met before SNHR will classify a case as an enforced disappearance: the individual must have been detained for at least 20 days without his or her family being able to obtain any information from the relevant authorities about their status or location, with those responsible for the disappearance denying any knowledge of the individual’s arrest or whereabouts.
As the report reveals, the vast majority of detainees involved in the popular uprising for democracy in Syria, including political and human rights activists, media workers, and relief activists, and similar prisoners of conscience, have been accused by the security branches of several charges based on testimonies taken from detainees by the regime under coercion, intimidation and torture, which are documented within regime security authorities’ reports, with these security reports being referred to the Public Prosecution service, after which the majority of these cases are referred to either the Counter-Terrorism Court or the Military Field Court; the lowest conditions of fair courts do not meet in these courts, which are also closer to a military-security branch.
The report documents at least 162 cases of arbitrary arrests/ detention in September 2020, including two children and six women, 127 of which have subsequently been categorized as cases of enforced disappearance, all at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria, with 86 of these, including one female child and three women, carried out at the hands of Syrian Regime forces, 65 of whom have subsequently been categorized as cases of enforced disappearance. It also documents 31 cases of arbitrary arrests/ detention at the hands of Syrian Democratic Forces, including one child, 23 of whom have subsequently been categorized as cases of enforced disappearance.
The report also documents 34 cases of arbitrary arrests/ detention at the hands of the Armed Opposition and Syrian National Army, 30 of whom have subsequently been categorized as cases of enforced disappearance. In addition, Hay’at Tahrir al Sham arrested 11 individuals, nine of whom have subsequently been categorized as cases of enforced disappearance.
The report also shows the distribution of cases of arbitrary arrests in September by provinces, with Aleppo seeing the largest number of arrests documented during this period, followed by Deir Ez-Zour, then Damascus Suburbs.
The report notes that the Syrian regime has issued nearly 17 amnesty decrees, the last of which was in March 2020, and many of which were similar to one another and focused on securing the release of perpetrators of crimes, felonies and offences, while including only a very small number of detainees referred to exceptional courts such as the Counter-Terrorism Court and the military field courts, and excluding the largest proportion of detainees who were not subjected to any trial during the years of their detention, who have been classified as forcibly disappeared.
The report further notes that detainees held by Syrian Regime forces are subjected to exceptionally brutal and sadistic methods of torture, and subjected to unimaginably squalid, unsanitary and massively overcrowded conditions in its detention centers without even the bare minimum of hygiene or sanitation to protect against illness and disease. The report also notes that these brutal conditions being a very deliberate and widespread strategy on the part of the Syrian regime with the aim of debasing and torturing detainees. Subjecting detainees to conditions that foster disease and infection and leaving them to suffer without medical help or treatment is another deliberate and conscious part of this strategy, forcing already physically and emotionally traumatized detainees to endure an additional layer of torment and debasement often leading to death. The report warns of the increasing danger facing prisoners in regime detention centers with the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in light of the brutal detention conditions that are favorable for the spread of infectious diseases such as the COVID-19 coronavirus; this now threatens the lives of approximately 130,000 people who are still documented as being detained or forcibly disappeared by Syrian Regime forces, according to the SNHR database.
The report notes that the issue of detainees and forcibly disappeared persons is one of the most crucial human rights issues in Syria which there has been no progress in resolving despite its inclusion in several resolutions of the UN Security Council, as well as in UN General Assembly resolutions, in Kofi Annan’s plan, and finally in the statement of cessation of hostilities issued in February 2016, and in Security Council resolution 2254 of December 2015, article 12, which states that all detainees, especially women and children, must be released immediately. Despite all these resolutions and other official statements, no progress has been made on the issue of securing the release of detainees in any of the rounds of negotiations sponsored by international parties regarding the conflict in Syria. The International Committee of the Red Cross has been unable to conduct any periodic visits to any of these detention centers, constituting a violation of International Humanitarian Law.
The report notes that the other parties (Syrian Democratic Forces, Hay’at Tahrir al Sham and the Armed Opposition/ The Syrian National Army) are all obliged to implement the provisions of international human rights law, and that they have committed widespread violations through arrests and enforced disappearances.
Zaman Al Wasl
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