According to Syrian Committee for Human Rights – MAD, Kurdish teenager Shahab Othman, known as Iden, born 15 April 1994, aged 15 years old was arrested and detained after being summoned by Political Security on 1 August 2009. He is a student from Derbazin Voqani village, in the Qobani area. No-one has seen him since that date and his whereabouts remain unknown.
On 17 November 2009 Aziz Khalil Abdi was arrested by Political Security while he was working. His whereabouts are still unknown, and there is no information about why he was arrested.
Syrian Committee for Human Rights – MAD views with grave concern the increasing incidents of arrest without warrants, the disappearance of detainees within the prison system of Syria, and the lack of information about the reason for the arrests. Shahab is just a child. The families of these detainees are also punished by the withholding of this information, and have the right to know where these people are and what they are accused of. Shahab Othman and Aziz Khalil Abdi should be released immediately if they have not committed a crime.
Syrian Committee for Human Rights – MAD calls on the Syrian Government to restore the basic human rights of these people, to stop arbitrary arrests, to release all political prisoners, and to abolish the State of Emergency and the martial law that is in operation.
Syrian Committee for Human Rights –MAD
23 December 2009
