Paris – The Syrian Network for Human Rights has notified the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions of the case of the Syrian citizen, Hesham Mustafa Abdul Malik, from Douma city in Damascus Suburbs governorate. Hesham, born in 1975, was arrested on July 31, 2014, by Syrian Regime forces in a raid on his home in the Masaken Barza neighbourhood in the northeast of Damascus city. His family learned of his deteriorating health and of his having contracted tuberculosis during his detention as a result of the conditions of detention and torture he was subjected to, with these conditions and the medical negligence he suffered leading to his death in Adra Central Prison in Damascus Suburbs governorate. On September 2, 2019, the Syrian regime’s Military Police notified family members of his death and asked them to come and collect his body, which they did the next day, September 3, 2019.
As is the norm in all such cases, Syrian authorities have not confessed to killing Hesham, while his family has been unable to submit any complaint about his death for fear of being persecuted by the regime security services for doing so.
SNHR stresses its grave concerns for the lives of civilians arrested since 2011, as the number of deaths in regime custody continues to rise.