Regime prisons and security centres in January 2022 | 12 people die under torture

While appeals and demands have continued to prevent deaths and torture inside the Syrian regime prisons and security detention centres, the murder of prisoners has not stopped amid the regime-initiated “reconciliation process” occasional pardon and amnesty decrees for wanted suspects by security services and those who fled and avoided the mandatory service in the ranks of regime army.

In January 2022, SOHR has documented the death of 12 Syrians in the regime prisons, most of whom were arrested in different times from “DeirEzzor, Aleppo, Hama, Daraa, Idlib, Rif Dimashq, Homs,” provinces.

Here are the details of those deaths by date:

• On January 1: A young man from Al-Baghouz town in the eastern countryside of DeirEzzor died under torture in regime prisons, after he had been arrested a few months ago by regime forces stationed at Al-Masna’ crossing on the Syria-Lebanon border, while he was heading from Lebanon to Syria to visit his relatives.

• On January 6: A young man from Al-Atareb city in the western countryside of Aleppo died due to brutal torture in regime prisons. He was arrested four years ago in Tartous city for unknown reasons. His family was informed of his death in prison.

• On January 6: A civilian from Hama province died under torture in Saydnaya prison, after being detained for more than a year.

• On January 8: SOHR activists documented the death of a civilian from Al-Hara city, north of Daraa, under brutal torture in a regime prison, after being arrested nearly four years earlier. The victim was a former member of opposition factions.

• On January 13: A civilian from Idlib died under brutal torture and because of poor medical care in regime prison, after being arrested nearly nine years earlier, after being arrested in January 2013 by State Security Intelligence in Idlib and transferred to Security State headquarters in Damascus.

• On January 14: A civilian from Gharibah Al-Gharbiyah village in DeirEzzor countryside died under torture in regime prison, nearly four months after he had been arrested at Al-Panorama checkpoint in DeirEzzor city.

• On January 14: The regime’s security services informed the families of two siblings from Harasta city about their death under torture in Saydnaya prison “human slaughterhouse” on January 13. According to Syrian Observatory sources, the two victims were arrested in September 2012 in a raid by the security forces in Harasta, Eastern Ghouta, where security arrested a number of adults and men on charges of “participating and organizing anti-regime demonstrations”.

• On January 16: A displaced inhabitant in the camp, originally from Homs province, had suffered heart infarction, according to the nurses in the camp who gave him some medicine. However, the man’s health conditions worsened, and he had to be transferred to a hospital. When, the Red Crescent car tried to get him out of the camp, Al-Musalas checkpoint refused to let the car pass and asked the patient to walk to the “military intelligence service” of the Syrian desert, which is located in Palmyra city in east Homs. The man was killed in the security service headquarters, while his brother was notified to receive the body and bury it.

• On January 17: A civilian from Homs province died under torture in “Military Intelligence” branch in the Syrian desert. The victim and his family had left Al-Rukban camp and headed to the areas controlled by the regime in Homs province. Military intelligence summoned the man who was in a school that served as a shelter for those leaving Al-Rukban camp in Homs. Days after his summons, his family was informed of his death in the military intelligence branch in Palmyra, and they received his body from Homs military hospital.

• On January 17: A civilian from Al-Buleil town in DeirEzzor countryside died under torture and because of poor medical care in Saydnaya prison. It is worth noting that the victim had struck a reconciliation deal with regime forces in the middle of 2021.

• On January 29: A civilian from Jasim city in Daraa countryside died under torture in Saydnaya prison, after nearly nine years of detention.

We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), warn against the ongoing indifference by the warring powers in Syria to the issue of detainees and forcibly disappeared. We also appeal to the international community to seriously intensify its efforts to disclose the fate of the detainees and forcibly disappeared people, and identify and hold the perpetrators accountable.