SNHR has briefed the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on the case of the citizen, Saad Sonbul, a vegetable and fruit vendor from the city of Idlib, who was aged 42 at the time of his arrest. SNHR urged the UN body to demand that the Syrian authorities release Sonbul immediately. He was arbitrarily arrested on July 25, 2012 at a checkpoint of the Military Security forces affiliated to Syrian Regime forces, near al Nizaria village in the southwest of Homs governorate. He was taken to the Military Security branch number 235 of the Palestine branch in Damascus city, where he was last seen in 2014. We have received no information on his whereabouts in any military branch or prison since then. His fate remains unknown to SNHR as well as his family.
The Syrian authorities have denied any connection with the disappearance of Saad Sonbul. SNHR has been unable to determine his fate, as have his family members, who fear that they may be arrested and tortured themselves if they continue to ask about his whereabouts and fate, as has happened in numerous previous cases.
SNHR has called on the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearance to intervene and to demand that the Syrian authorities release Mr. Sonbul immediately, as well as to expedite investigations into the fate of thousands of other forcibly disappeared citizens whose whereabouts and current conditions must also be revealed.