The SNHR has briefed the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on the case of the child Noor al Din Mahmoud, from Saqba town in the Eastern Ghouta in Damascus Suburbs governorate, a secondary school student, who was aged 15 at the time of his arrest. SNHR urged the UN body to demand that the Syrian authorities release him immediately. Nour al Din was arrested arbitrarily on July 20, 2013, in a raid on his place of residence in al Wafdin Camp area in Damascus Suburbs governorate by the Syrian Regime’s Air Security forces, who shot at his legs before arresting him. He was later seen in the Air Security branch in al Mazza neighborhood in Damascus city, then in Sydnaya Military Prison in Damascus Suburbs governorate at early September of the same year. He has not been seen since that date at any security branch or prison. His fate remains unknown to the SNHR as well as to his family.
The Syrian authorities have denied any connection with the disappearance of the child Nour al Din Mahmoud. The SNHR has been unable to determine his fate, as have his family members, who fear that they may be arrested and tortured by regime personnel themselves if they continue to ask about his whereabouts and fate, as has happened in numerous previous cases.