Regime prisons in January 2023 | Seven people died under torture

Regime security services continue their crimes, mainly brutal torture, against detainees and forcibly disappeared people in prisons and security centres. In January 2023, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented the death of seven civilians under torture in regime prisons. The victims included a regime army defector, a member of the regime’s military security service and a member of a local faction in Al-Suwaidaa.

 

Here are further details on torture victims documented in the past month:

 

• January 10: A young man from Talbiseh in the northern countryside of Homs died under torture in the regime’s “notorious” Sednaya prison after an arrest of nearly five years.

 

• January 10: A young man from Khattab town in the northern Hama countryside died under torture in regime’s prison after being arrested for nine years. According to Syrian Observatory activists, the young man was a construction labourer before he was arrested by regime security services in 2014, following a raid campaign on his home in Khattab town and taking him to the “Air Security” Branch in Hama. On January 6, the victim’s family learned that he had been killed in a regime detention centre in 2017.

 

• January 14: A member of the regime’s “military security” died under torture in regime’s prison, following his release by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who arrested him in Ain Issa in Al-Raqqah countryside. According to SOHR sources, the man was captured by SDF intelligence in Ain Issa, north of Al-Raqqah, then was released and returned to areas controlled by the regime forces, after which the regime forces arrested him on charges of “working for the SDF.” The man was taken to the hospital in Aleppo city after his health deteriorated due to being subjected to brutal torture, resulting in death.

 

• January 20: A young man in his 30s died under torture inside regime prisons after being arrested for nearly 11 years. According to reliable SOHR sources, the young man is from Al-Yarmok camp in Damascus, and was arrested by the regime’s “Military Security” on Al-Maza highway in Damascus in 2012, where he worked in emergency field and was one of the most prominent people in training young men in camps.

 

• January 28: A civilian from Al-Yarubiyah district, north-east of Al-Hasakah, died under torture in regime’s “notorious” Sednaya prison after 12 years of detention.

 

• January 28: A civilian from Etman town in middle Daraa countryside died under brutal torture in the depth of the infamous military Saidaniyah prison, years after being arrested.

 

• January 30: A man from Al-Suwaydaa province died under torture in the regime’s prison, after seven months of detention. Eight persons working for the so-called Syrian Brigade Party of the counter-terrorism Force faction were arrested by regime forces, seven of whom were released on Sunday, January 29.

 

We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, renew our appeals to the International community to exert pressure on the Syrian regime to release tens of thousands of detainees and disclose the fate of forcibly disappeared individuals.