The SNHR has briefed the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on the case of the Syrian citizen Suleiman Ali al Zaid, from al Bseira village in the suburbs of Deir Ez-Zour governorate and a resident of al Bardeh village in Damascus Suburbs governorate who moved there for work. Suleiman, who was born in 1965, was arrested on March 5, 2013, with his three daughters, Marwa, Suzan and Ula, born in 1994, 1998, and 2000 respectively, by Syrian regime personnel at the regime’s al Van checkpoint near al Bardeh village, who first forced them to disembark from the bus on which they were travelling to their jobs in a detergent factory, on the pretext that Suleiman did not have personal ID cards for his daughters. He was taken, along with his three daughters, to an undisclosed location and all four have been forcibly disappeared since then. Their fate remains unknown to the SNHR, as well as to their family.
The Syrian authorities have denied any connection with the disappearance of the citizen Suleiman al Zaid and his three daughters. The SNHR has been unable to determine their fate, as have their family members, who fear that they may be arrested and tortured by regime personnel themselves if they continue to ask about their loved ones’ whereabouts and fate, as has happened in numerous previous cases.