The Syrian Regime Arbitrarily Arrested 57 Citizens in May
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) announced in its latest report that it documented at least 147 arbitrary arrests/detentions in May 2022, including 13 children and four women, noting that the Syrian regime arbitrarily arrested 57 citizens in May and that arbitrary arrests continue following the issuance of the Amnesty Decree.
In a related context, the report referred to Law No. 16 for 2022, issued by the Syrian regime’s President on March 30, 2022, criminalizing torture. The new legislation claims that the regime considers torture to be a felony requiring severe punishment for its perpetrator, or for those who participated in it, as well as those who provoked it. The report provides six key points demonstrating fundamental flaws in the text of the law itself, adding that this law will remain meaningless ink on paper and will not contribute in any way to deterring the security services from practicing torture as long as the regime’s other repressive laws are in force, which are the ones on which the regime is based, including the texts that grant impunity to members of the security services from prosecution, conflicting with many articles of the General Penal Code and the current constitution; the survival of the exceptional criminal courts (military field court, counter-terrorism court) in Damascus; authorization of regime security services to investigate citizens for a period that often exceeds two months; the failure to reform the prison organization or subject it to judicial supervision; and the Executive Authority encroaching on the judiciary.
The report notes that Syrian regime forces have continued to persecute and target Syrian citizens in areas under regime control in connection with their political dissent and expression of opinions, despite the right to both being guaranteed by the constitution and international law. This proves once again the truth of the crucial point which we have reiterated several times previously, namely that no Syrian citizen can feel safe from arrest since these are carried out without any basis in law or any oversight by any independent judiciary, and are perpetrated by the security services with no involvement by the judiciary. Following these arrests, detainees are routinely classified as forcibly disappeared persons, and therefore the areas under the control of the Syrian regime cannot be considered to constitute any sort of safe haven for residents there; all this underlines the fact that regime-controlled areas of Syria are very definitely not a safe haven for the return of refugees or IDPs. The report stresses that there will be no stability or safety in light of the survival of the regime’s brutal security services, who have committed crimes against humanity since 2011 and are still continuing to do so up to the current date. The report adds that among the arrests and detentions documented by SNHR in May were those by Syrian regime forces that continued in May to persecute and arrest individuals who had concluded settlements of their security status with the Syrian regime in areas that had previously concluded settlement agreements with the regime; these arrests have been concentrated in Damascus Suburbs and Daraa governorates, with most occurring during campaigns of mass raids and arrests and at checkpoints.
The report also documents arrests by Syrian regime forces in Damascus Suburbs governorate targeting a number of civilians and former activists who had previously worked in the medical and humanitarian relief fields while their areas were under the control of factions of the Armed Opposition. In addition, the report records random arrests of Syrian citizens in Damascus Suburbs governorate, with most of these occurring during campaigns of mass raids and arrests, which are believed to be based on malicious security reports issued due to the targeted individuals’ opposition to the Syrian regime. The report also documents arrests in connection with civilians receiving money transfers from their relatives outside Syria. The report also documents random arrests of Syrian citizens in the governorates of Damascus Suburbs, Aleppo, and Hama, which were carried out by Syrian regime forces under the pretext that those arrested had failed to perform their reserve military service. In addition, the report records the re-arrest of one woman who had been released under Amnesty Decree No. 7 of 2022.
As for Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the report documents a number of detentions of civilians, including media activists and politicians, carried out by the group in May, with these arrests concentrated in the Idlib governorate. These arrests occurred due to the detainees expressing opinions critical of the HTS’s management of areas under its control. These detentions were carried out arbitrarily in the form of raids in which HTS members stormed their victims’ homes, often breaking down the doors, or abducting their victims while they were traveling or passing through temporary checkpoints.
As the report reveals, all Armed Opposition factions/Syrian National Army also continued carrying out arbitrary detentions and kidnappings in May, most of which were carried out on a mass scale, targeting individuals coming from areas controlled by the Syrian regime. In addition, the report documents detentions carried out under an ethnic pretext, with these incidents being concentrated in areas under the Armed Opposition/Syrian National Army’s control in Aleppo governorate. Most of these arrests occurred without judicial authorization and without the participation of the police force, which is the legitimate administrative authority responsible for arrests and detentions through the judiciary, with these arrests also carried out without presenting any clear charges against those being detained. The report also documents raids and detentions carried out by Syrian National Army personnel, targeting civilians, including women, on charges of collaborating with Syrian Democratic Forces.
The report documents at least 147 arbitrary arrests/detentions in May 2022, including 13 children and four women, with 121 of these cases subsequently categorized as cases of enforced disappearance, all at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria; 57 of these were carried out at the hands of Syrian regime forces, while the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces detained 48 individuals, including 13 children. The report also notes that all Armed Opposition factions/Syrian National Army detained 31 individuals, while Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham detained 11 individuals.
The report stresses that the Syrian regime has not fulfilled any of its obligations in any of the international treaties and conventions it has ratified, most particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It has also violated several articles of the Syrian Constitution itself, with thousands of detainees detained without any arrest warrant for many years, without charges, and prevented from appointing a lawyer and from receiving family visits. 68 percent of all detentions documented have subsequently been categorized as enforced disappearance cases.
In the report, SNHR again calls on the Security Council to follow through in the implementation of Resolution 2042, Resolution 2043, and Resolution 2139.
The report stresses that the UN and the guarantor parties at Astana should form an impartial special committee to monitor cases of arbitrary arrest, and reveal the fate of the 102,000 missing persons in Syria, 85 percent of whom are detained by the Syrian regime. The report adds that pressure should be applied on all parties to immediately reveal their detention records in accordance with a timetable to immediately make detainees’ whereabouts public, and allow humanitarian organizations and the International Committee of Red Cross to have direct access to them.
Lastly, the report emphasizes that children and women should immediately be released from captivity, and families and friends of detainees or wanted individuals should not be detained as prisoners of war, with the report also providing additional recommendations.
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