Two brothers among 1,770 Palestinian refugees 'disappeared' in Assad's prisons: AGPS

Oct 29, 2020

Palestinian brothers Waseem and Anas Mahmoud Muhahi have been secretly held in Syrian regime dungeons since October 2012. Both were kidnapped from Yarmouk Camp for Palestinian refugees south of Damascus.

The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria (AGPS) reports that the whereabouts and conditions of both brothers are shrouded in mystery, adding that dozens of members of the extended family had been subjected to imprisonment and fatal torture in the Assad regime’s prisons.

Expressing concern at the the upsurge in the number of Palestinian victims of torture and enforced disappearance in Syria, AGPS reported that it had documented the death of nearly 600 Palestinian refugees under torture in Syrian regime prisons, including women, children, and elderly civilians, adding that over 1,770 Palestinian refugees have also been secretly held in the regime’s dungeons since the outbreak of the uprising for freedom in Syria in 2011.

The AGPS cited affidavits by ex-detainees providing evidence of Syrian regime personnel using brutal torture tactics against prisoners, including Palestinian detainees, with the torture methods including electric shocks, heavy beating using whips and iron rods, and sexual abuse, in flagrant violation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, commonly known as the United Nations Convention against Torture (UNCAT).

AGPS stated that it continues to urge the Syrian government to disclose the fate of scores of Palestinians held in its prisons, to release the bodies of those tortured to death, to seriously work on halting the use of harsh torture tactics, to launch fact-finding probes into crimes of torture, and to bring those involved in such crimes before courts.