A Syrian human rights organization has warned the families of detainees and disappeared people against fraud attempts carried out by some "death brokers" who claim that they can release their relatives from the notorious Saydnaya military prison north of Damascus.
The Nophotozone organization, which is run by the human rights activist and wife of the martyr Bassel Khartabil, Noura Ghazi Al-Safadi, said that there are some people offering the family assistance to the lawyer who they claim was the one who helped them get out of Sednaya prison in exchange for sums of money.
They tell them that they met their relative who was detained there and that he was waiting for a court session soon and that he may have died under torture years before, in collusion with regime officers or lawyers who lacked the honor of their profession.
In several cases, lawyers or those claiming to be lawyers were actually contacted to inform the families of the necessity of sending sums of money to organize a power of attorney in absentia and defend the detainee. In most of these cases, the family had already received the death certificate of their detained relative.
Power of attorney in absentia
The organization pointed out that it is not possible under any circumstances to make a so-called power of attorney in absentia, and added that the cost of a lawyer’s power of attorney in Syria does not amount to hundreds of dollars as claimed, and that most of the detainees, specifically the civilians in Sednaya prison, are referred exclusively to the Military Field Court, which It does not allow the appointment of a lawyer at all, based on the decree establishing the court.
The source continued that the Military Field Court was canceled by a legislative decree of the regime last September, and the decree stipulated that the files that were pending before this court be referred to the military judiciary.
Also, the files that were actually referred for consideration before the military judiciary are only for female detainees and detainees against whom no sentences have been issued, which is a small percentage compared to the amount of files that were considered before the Military Field Court.
The Istanbul-based human rights organization indicated that most of the female detainees and detainees had previously been sentenced to death sentences and imprisonment, and that most cases of death sentences had been carried out, unfortunately.
Also, hundreds of detainees in Saydnaya Prison died before their sentences were issued as a result of torture, ill-treatment, and poor living conditions, and therefore these files will not be heard before the military judiciary.
Since the issuance of this decree, families have been subjected to more financial and emotional blackmail.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said in October 2023, the Syrian regime is accused of killing 15,051 people, including 190 children and 94 women, due to torture in detention centers since March 2011, and nearly 136,000 detainees or forcibly disappeared people are still being subjected to torture.
The report stated that the Syrian regime does not, in most cases, inform the families of victims who died under torture of their death inside the detention center on the date of their death. Families learn of the death of their children either through survivors of detention centers or after visiting military police headquarters in Damascus several times. Families often receive This information was obtained several years after the date of the detainee’s death.
Reporting by Faris al-Rifai
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