Kurdish forces handed over 600 detainees to Assad on fabricated charges in secret deal in 2024

 

In 2018, following escalating tensions between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian regime in the city of Afrin, the area witnessed a secret deal under which the SDF handed over more than 600 detainees to regime forces, including civilians and political activists, on fabricated charges of belonging to ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra.

The deal came after Turkish aircraft targeted a Syrian regime military convoy on March 14, 2018, heading to Afrin to support the SDF. This attack resulted in the deaths of several fighters from the regime's Popular Army. This incident eroded the relationship of trust between the two sides, especially with the SDF's withdrawal from Afrin on March 15. Regime forces closed roads to the SDF convoys, prompting the latter to negotiate and offer the detainees as a guarantee to restore trust.

According to testimonies from surviving detainees, such as media activists Ibrahim al-Muhammad and Ahmed Medlej, they were arrested by the SDF on political or civil activism charges and then handed over to the regime under the pretext of their affiliation with terrorist organizations. 

During this time, the detainees were subjected to torture and unfair retrials inside regime prisons, in the absence of any legal or human rights safeguards. Information indicates that the SDF distributed the detainees among regime prisons, where some were sentenced to sentences of up to ten years, while the fate of the majority remains unknown to this day. This process violates international agreements, most notably the Convention against Torture, which prohibits the extradition of anyone at risk of torture or unfair trials.