Published : 03-08-2022
An ex-prisoner said he had met a Palestinian refugee in the so-called Palestine Branch, a military branch for detainees caught by the Syrian regime.
In a letter, the ex-prisoner identified the Palestinian refugee as Ahmad Mustafa Maw’ed, a resident of Yarmouk Camp, south of Damascus. The latter has been secretly held in prison for nearly seven years.
Ahmad reportedly appealed to the ex-prisoner to reach out to his family and update them about his condition and whereabouts.
Over recent years, AGPS has warned that the families of hundreds of Palestinian refugees secretly held in Syrian state jails have been blackmailed over their appeals for information.
Hundreds of families have paid large sums of money of at least $2,000 up to $20,000 to brokers, crooked lawyers, or government officials to get information about the condition and whereabouts of their missing relatives.
The families hardly ever receive the required pieces of information and the traffickers never show up again as soon as they are paid.
In a report entitled “Syria: Between Prison and the Grave” and published in 2015, Amnesty International warned that tens of thousands of people in Syria have vanished without a trace. They are the victims of enforced disappearance – when a person is arrested, detained or abducted by a state or agents acting for the state, who then deny the person is being held or conceal their whereabouts, placing them outside the protection of the law. The disappeared are cut off from the outside world, packed into overcrowded, secret cells where torture is routine, disease is rampant and death is commonplace. Their families are forced to live in desperation with few, if any, safe ways of finding their loved ones.
According to the report, the number of actors seeking to use the system for their own personal gain or advantage has increased. As a result of this opportunism by state security officers, an even greater number of inpiduals have been subjected to enforced disappearance in Syria. Amnesty International’s research suggested that those who exploit the system are driven by two primary motivations: first, the pursuit of financial profit, and second, the settling of personal grievances.
An ex-prisoner said he had met a Palestinian refugee in the so-called Palestine Branch, a military branch for detainees caught by the Syrian regime.
In a letter, the ex-prisoner identified the Palestinian refugee as Ahmad Mustafa Maw’ed, a resident of Yarmouk Camp, south of Damascus. The latter has been secretly held in prison for nearly seven years.
Ahmad reportedly appealed to the ex-prisoner to reach out to his family and update them about his condition and whereabouts.
Over recent years, AGPS has warned that the families of hundreds of Palestinian refugees secretly held in Syrian state jails have been blackmailed over their appeals for information.
Hundreds of families have paid large sums of money of at least $2,000 up to $20,000 to brokers, crooked lawyers, or government officials to get information about the condition and whereabouts of their missing relatives.
The families hardly ever receive the required pieces of information and the traffickers never show up again as soon as they are paid.
In a report entitled “Syria: Between Prison and the Grave” and published in 2015, Amnesty International warned that tens of thousands of people in Syria have vanished without a trace. They are the victims of enforced disappearance – when a person is arrested, detained or abducted by a state or agents acting for the state, who then deny the person is being held or conceal their whereabouts, placing them outside the protection of the law. The disappeared are cut off from the outside world, packed into overcrowded, secret cells where torture is routine, disease is rampant and death is commonplace. Their families are forced to live in desperation with few, if any, safe ways of finding their loved ones.
According to the report, the number of actors seeking to use the system for their own personal gain or advantage has increased. As a result of this opportunism by state security officers, an even greater number of inpiduals have been subjected to enforced disappearance in Syria. Amnesty International’s research suggested that those who exploit the system are driven by two primary motivations: first, the pursuit of financial profit, and second, the settling of personal grievances.
