More than 112,000 Syrians forcibly disappeared under the Baath regime remain missing, and evidence suggests many of them died in detention, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) reported.
The extent of torture and extrajudicial executions in Syrian prisons has increasingly been revealed following the collapse of the 61-year-old Baath Party regime on December 8.
The SNHR database includes records of approximately 136,000 people who were detained or forcibly disappeared during the Baath regime. The organization has documented the release of some 24,200 prisoners from detention centers across Syria since the overthrow of President Bashar Al-Assad.
SNHR Chairman Fadel Abdul Ghany told Anadolu that the group is currently verifying the details of those released from prisons in Aleppo on November 28, Hama on December 5, Homs on December 7 and Damascus on December 8. .
“After excluding recent releases, 112,414 people detained by the regime remain missing and were most likely murdered,” Abdul Ghany said. “Since their bodies have not been returned to their families, they are still considered forcibly missing… There is no evidence to suggest they are still alive.”
The Assad regime deliberately delayed recording data on deaths
Ghany said the regime deliberately delayed recording the deaths in civil registries to prolong the 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 their registration, sometimes years apart.
“They were killed and searched without notifying their families, leaving them to endure continuous suffering while they waited for 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 discovered and there are rumors of many more,” he said.
He stressed that identifying the bodies and comparing them with samples from relatives of the disappeared is a very complex process, and emphasized that only when the bodies are identified can the fate of the forcibly disappeared be confirmed.
He also warned against raising false hopes among families over rumors of secret underground prisons. Ghany said that all the regime’s prisons were opened after December 8. There is no one left in these facilities nor are there secret prisons.
Established in June 2011 to document systematic human rights violations in Syria, the SNHR continues its efforts under the leadership of Abdul Ghany as thousands of families wait for news about their missing loved ones.
