Source: Alkarama website

Published on: 27 July 2012

While the media continues to disseminate images of Syrian cities struggling with the horrors of civil war, Syria’s intelligence services and the militias affiliated with them press on with arbitrary arrests leading to the subsequent disappearance of the arrested civilians. The case of Ms. Fatima Khalid Saad presents a disturbing example of such practices. Ms. Saad, a 24 years old who works as a nurse, and hails from the coastal city of Latakia in Syria’s northwest, was arrested on June 28^th, 2012, yet to date, the Syrian authorities have refused to admit to her arrest, and have not allowed any contact between her and her family.

On the afternoon of June 28^th 2012, eight members from the General Intelligence Directorate (homeland/state security) arrived at Ms. Saad’s family home, where they arrested her along with her father and brother. While both her father and brother were later released after hours of interrogation, no trace of Ms. Saad has been found since.

Al Karama has learned from its sources that she was at first detained by the security agents who had arrested her, then was transferred to the Political Security’s regional headquarters, where she was severely tortured causing her health to quickly and dangerously deteriorate to a point where she needed to be transferred to the military hospital in Al Qala’a district of Latakia, before apparently being placed in a detention center for the General Intelligence Service on July 17^th, 2012.

Due to the countless number of reports detailing death during custody, which often occurs as a result of torture, in addition to the dire health condition Ms. Saad seems to be in, Al Karama expresses its deep concern for her life. We therefore call on the Syrian authorities for the immediate release of Ms. Saad, as well as to provide her with adequate health care. In this regard Al Karama has informed parties associated with the United Nations of Ms. Saad’s condition.