Two civilians killed under torture in SDF prisons in a week
5-May-2023
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) killed two young civilians in their prisons in one week . They killed the youth Wael Abdul Mouti Ulaiwi – 30 years old – in their prisons, approximately after a year after his arrest. Wael was arrested in 2022 at SDF militia’s checkpoints in the city of Raqqa, and taken to an unknown destination. Yesterday, May 4, 2023, the militia informed his family in the city of Raqqa of his death, and his body was handed to them.
The SDF militia also handed over the body of the youth, Muhammad Hashash al-Handal, on April 28, 2023, after being detained for approximately two years in their prisons on charges of affiliation to ISIS. The victim, Al-Handal, is from the city of Hajin in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor Governorate. His family was informed of his death in the infamous Ghweran prison in Al-Hasakah, where his body was handed over to them.
It is noteworthy that the SDF continues to violate the rights of civilians in the areas under its control, and to a large scale, practices killing, torture, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance against them, as 4,513 Syrian detainees are still under arrest or enforced disappearance, of whom more than 90 detainees have been killed, and that cases of torture inside its prisons are not Isolated practices or individual behaviour, but a systematic policy of inflicting physical and psychological harm on detainees, and intimidating activists and political opponents.
The killing, torture, detention and arbitrary arrest practiced by the SDF militia constitute a flagrant violation of international human rights law, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966, and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 1984. This constitutes a crime against humanity according to the charter of the International Criminal Court.
The Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) condemns the killings, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, and enforced disappearances practiced by the SDF militia, and demands that it immediately stops committing these violations and punish the perpetrators. SHRC also demand that it immediately release all detainees, SHRC calls on the countries that support it to stop this support Which the SDF uses to commit further violations and crimes against Syrian civilians, and also calls on the international community to work seriously and diligently to find a comprehensive solution to the Syrian issue, to implement international resolutions, and to hold the perpetrators of crimes against the Syrian people accountable.