Muhammed Yusuf
28 December 2024•Update: 29 December 2024
ISTANBUL
More than 112,000 Syrians forcibly disappeared under the Baath regime remain unaccounted for, with evidence suggesting many were killed in detention, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) reported.
The scale of torture and extrajudicial executions in Syrian prisons has been increasingly revealed following the collapse of the 61-year Baath Party regime on Dec. 8.
The SNHR's database includes records of approximately 136,000 individuals who were detained or forcibly disappeared during the Baath regime. The organization has documented the release of about 24,200 prisoners from detention facilities across Syria since the regime's fall.
SNHR Chairman Fadel Abdul Ghany told Anadolu that the group is currently verifying details of those freed from prisons in Aleppo on Nov. 28, Hama on Dec. 5, Homs on Dec. 7, and Damascus on Dec. 8.
“After excluding recent releases, 112,414 individuals detained by the regime remain unaccounted for and were most likely killed,” said Abdul Ghany.
“Since their bodies have not been returned to their families, they are still categorized as forcibly disappeared ... There is no evidence to suggest they are still alive,” he explained.
Assad regime deliberately delayed recording death data
Ghany said the regime deliberately delayed recording deaths in civil registries to prolong families’ anguish.
He highlighted that people killed by the Baath regime often had two dates recorded in the civil registry: the actual date of their death and the delayed date of its registration, sometimes years apart.
"They were killed and registered without notifying their families, leaving them to endure ongoing suffering while awaiting news or the discovery of mass graves,” he said, adding that the regime used this tactic to give false hope.
Mass graves
Ghany noted that dozens of mass graves remain undiscovered across Syria. “Only a few mass graves have been uncovered, and there are rumors of many more,” he said.
He stressed that identifying bodies and matching them with samples from families of the disappeared is a highly complex process, emphasizing that only when bodies are identified can the fate of the forcibly disappeared be confirmed.
He also cautioned against fostering false hope among families regarding rumors of secret underground prisons.
He said that all of the regime's prisons were opened after Dec. 8. There is no one left in these facilities, nor are there any secret prisons.
Established in June 2011 to document systematic human rights violations in Syria, the SNHR continues its efforts under Abdul Ghany’s leadership as thousands of families await news of their missing loved ones.
