SDF-held areas | Nearly 90 civilians arrested for “cooperating with Turkey,” amid accusation of extracting confessions from detainees under torture

Autonomous Administration intelligence continues to arrest nearly 90 civilians in SDF-held areas and northern Aleppo countryside following Turkish attacks last July and August.

According to SOHR sources, among the detainees, there are administrators of Civil councils.

90 civilians were arrested on charges of dealing with Turkish forces and the “National Army,” and giving coordinates on the outpost of SDF.

The detainees’ families accuse the intelligence of extracting the confessions of the detainees under torture, as the detainees were subjected to various types of torture after targeting leaders and SDF actors.

On September 4, SOHR activists reported that the young displaced man from Afrin known by his initials as (D. A’.) died hours after he was transferred from the Internal Security Prison in Al-Sheikh Maqsoud to a hospital in Aleppo.

The young man was detained for nearly 15 days by the Internal Security Forces (Asayish) for unknown charges.

Local and private sources told SOHR that the signs of torture were shown on several parts of his body.

The young man’s family accuse Asayish of torturing their beloved one. The forensic doctor who examined the body of the young man told the young man’s family that he saw the signs of torture on the young man’s chest and leg.

The young man is from Al-Ghazawiyah village in Shirawa district of Afrin countryside, north-west of Aleppo. The young man was an archivist in Autonmous Administration institution and was arrested for unknown reasons nearly 15 days ago in Al-Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood of Aleppo city.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), therefore, calls on Autonomous Administration to open an investigation to uncover the circumstances of the death of the detained young man, and to prosecute the perpetrators if they are found guilty of human rights violations.