Internal Security Forces arrested Nada al-Ghabra and Lama al-Sawaf, former directors of the Lahn al-Hayat orphanage, on Tuesday, on suspicion of their involvement in sensitive cases related to children of former detainees.
The Lahn al-Hayat orphanage operated in areas under the control of the former Syrian regime and faced multiple accusations of concealing the identities of detainees' children and handing them over to families loyal to the regime, in what human rights activists described as a gross violation of children's rights and political and security exploitation of an extremely vulnerable group.
This move is seen as an indication that the authorities are beginning to open up files on violations in the care sector for orphans and children of detainees, a file that has long remained hidden despite repeated human rights demands.
Zaman al-Wasl newspaper had opened this file in the first days after the "liberation," publishing extensive reports and exclusive documents, in addition to directing official inquiries to the administrations of orphanages about the fate of children of unknown parentage or those forcibly separated from their families.
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