A twenty-five-year-old man, Ahmad al Nezami, from Ibriha village in Deir Ez-Zour governorate eastern suburbs, was arrested by Syrian regime forces in June 2021 as he passed through a checkpoint on the road between Deir Ez-Zour and Homs cities. Thereafter, the regime consistently denied detaining him and refused to allow anyone, even a lawyer, to visit him. On May 17, 2022, an officer of the Syrian regime forces informed his family that he had died in one of its detention centers. SNHR can confirm that he was in good health at the time of his arrest, and believes it’s highly probable that Ahmad died due to torture and lack of medical care.

SNHR can confirm that the Syrian regime failed to hand Ahmad’s body over to his family; this is standard practice for the regime, with the bodies of the majority of detainees who die in its detention centers being disposed of through mass cremations. Since the whereabouts of these prisoners’ remains is unknown and they are not handed over to their relatives, these detainees continue to be classified as being among the forcibly disappeared.

SNHR can confirm that at least 132,667 Syrian citizens are currently still detained or forcibly disappeared in the regime’s detention centers, constituting a grave threat to the detainees’ wellbeing, particularly given the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

SNHR notes that at least 14,449 Syrian citizens have died due to torture in Syrian regime detention centers.

Source: Syrian Network