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The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has briefed the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on the case of the citizen, Walid Qasem al-Fahad, born in 1976, who was working as an auto mechanic at the time of his arrest. Walid, from Shab’a town of al-Mleiha subdistrict in Rural Damascus governorate. Mr. al-Fahad, who was living in Qab Elias in Zahle district in the Bekaa governorate in Lebanon at the time of his arrest, was arrested by Assad regime forces personnel on March 4, 2013, at the Jdaidet Yabous (al Masnaa) border crossing between Syria and Lebanon, located northwest of Damascus governorate, while he was returning from Lebanon. He was then 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.
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 citizen Walid Qasem al-Fahad.
The Syrian authorities have denied any connection with the enforced disappearance of the citizen Walid Qasem al-Fahad. SNHR has been unable to determine his fate, as have his family members, who feared that they may be arrested and tortured themselves if they continue to ask about his whereabouts and fate, as has happened in numerous similar cases.
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 Walid Qasem al-Fahad 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 since 2011 may have been subjected to torture and possibly died due to torture, with the number of citizens forcibly disappeared continuing to grow.