Languages
Available In
The Hague -The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has briefed the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on the case of the citizen, Muhammad Khair Ibrahim al Buqa’i, born in 1982, from Deir al Asafir city in Damascus Suburbs governorate, who was a daily laborer at the time of his arrest. He was arrested by Syrian regime forces personnel on Wednesday, April 12, 2012, in a raid on his house in the city, and taken to an undisclosed location. Since that date, he has been forcibly disappeared. His fate remains unknown to the SNHR, as well as to his family.
The SNHR has also briefed the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on the case of the citizen, Alaa Omar al Buqa’i, born in 1989, a person with special needs who suffered from mental illnesses at the time of his arrest, also from Deir al Asafir city in Damascus Suburbs governorate. He was arrested by Syrian regime forces personnel on Saturday, August 12, 2012, in a raid on his family’s house in the city, and taken to an undisclosed location. Since that date, he has been forcibly disappeared. His fate remains unknown to the SNHR, as well as to his family.
The SNHR has also briefed the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on the case of the citizen, Omar Younes al Buqa’i, born in 1990, a daily laborer at the time of his arrest, also from Deir al Asafir city in Damascus Suburbs governorate. He was arrested by Syrian regime forces personnel on Friday, March 23, 2018, in a raid on his place of residence in an IDP shelter center in the compound of the Electricity Institute in Adra city in Damascus Suburbs governorate, where he’d gone after being displaced from the Eastern Ghouta area as a result of battles between the armed opposition factions and the Syrian regime forces, after which Syrian regime forces took control of the area, and took him to the regime’s Air Security branch in Damascus city. His father was able to visit him for the last time in Seydnaya Military Prison in Damascus Suburbs governorate in 2019. Since that date, he has been forcibly disappeared. His fate remains unknown to the SNHR, as well as to his family.
The SNHR has also briefed the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, as well as briefing the UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, specifically in regard to the case of the citizens, Muhammad Khair, Alaa and Omar.
The Syrian authorities have denied any connection with the enforced disappearance of the citizens, Muhammad Khair Ibrahim al Buqa’i, Alaa Omar al Buqa’I, and Omar Younes al Buqa’i. 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 whereabouts and fate, as has happened in numerous previous cases.
The SNHR has called on the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearance, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, as well as the UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, to intervene and to demand that the Syrian authorities release them immediately, as well as to secure the release of thousands of other forcibly disappeared citizens whose whereabouts and current conditions must also be revealed.
Although the Syrian government is not a party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, it is indisputably a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Arab Charter on Human Rights. Enforced disappearance constitutes a violation of both instruments.
SNHR also confirms that there are well-founded fears that many of those forcibly disappeared by the Syrian regime since 2011 may have been subjected to torture and possibly killed in regime detention, with the number of citizens forcibly disappeared by the regime continuing to grow.