Regime repression | Security services arrest nearly 500 people from Aleppo province since early 2021

As the Syrian regime continues its repressions and atrocities against the Syrian people, arbitrary arrests are growing in the areas under the control of al-Assad’s regime throughout Syria.

 

In this context, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the arrest of nearly 480 people in regime-held areas across Aleppo province since early 2021 for various charges, mostly were the “communication with foreign bodies and organizations and the passing of the date of joining the mandatory and reserve service. Many of the detainees were released, mostly were released only after their families had paid levies. While nearly 30 people, of those arrested in Aleppo since early 2021, have been still detained, among them there are 11 detainees whom SOHR could document by names. SOHR could not obtain the names of the rest of the detainees, as their families preferred not to disclose their identities, for fear of being punished by the regime’s intelligence service.

 

Further details of the detainees documented by SOHR by names and circumstances of their arrest could be summarised as follows:

 

• A man known by his initials as H. J. was arrested by regime security service, on September 22, in al-Nayrab camp for unknown reasons.

 

• Four men known by their initials as “A. S.”, “J. S.”, “A. K.” and “W. A.” were arrested by regime security service, on September 9, in Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood in Aleppo city. The regime security services asked the detainees’ families to pay 190 million Syrian liras in return for releasing them.

 

• A man known by his initials as A. M. was arrested by Liwaa al-Quds, on September 1, in al-Nayrab camp for unknown reasons.

 

• A man known by his initials as F. N. from Aleppo countryside was arrested by regime security service, on August 20, in Aleppo city for unknown reasons. The man was taken later to Sydnaya prison.

 

• Two men known by their initials as “N. K.” and “A. H.” were arrested by regime security service, on August 17, while they were passing through a checkpoint at the entrance of Aleppo city.

 

• A man known by his initials as A. K. from Afrin was arrested by regime security service, on June 19, in Aleppo city, and he was taken later to the state security branch.

 

• A dignitary of a tribe known by his initials as M. A. was arrested by regime security service, in early April, in Maskanah town in Aleppo countryside for unknown reasons.

 

It is worth noting that the alarming rise in arbitrary arrests in regime-held areas indicates to ongoing repression by regime forces and security services, despite the calls upon the Syrian refugees to return to their homeland which “has become safe”, as regime authorities claim.

 

Also, the Syrian Observatory would like to point out that the cases of arbitrary arrests mentioned in this report have been only the cases that SOHR activists could document by names, as this report does not include other cases arrested arbitrarily in different areas under the control of the Syrian regime and Iranian-backed militias in Aleppo province, whose names could not be obtained.

 

It is worth noting that many families prefer not to disclose details on their sons’ identities and circumstances of their arrest, fearing the reaction of regime security services in the case that the cases of their sons are circulated on social media.