SNHR has briefed the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on the case of the citizen, Mohammad Akroush, from Baniyas city in Tartous governorate, an auto body repair worker, who was aged 46 at the time of his arrest. SNHR urged the UN body to demand that the Syrian authorities release him immediately. Mr. Akroush was arrested arbitrarily on October 15, 2013, while passing through a checkpoint of the Syrian Regime forces in the Jisr Arzouna neighborhood in Trtous city by Military Security forces affiliated with Syrian Regime forces. His fate remains unknown to SNHR as well as his family.
The Syrian authorities have denied any connection with the disappearance of Mohammad Akroush. 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. Akroush 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.