27 May 2024

In a meeting with Without Restrictions Organization in Afrin, SNC President, Dr. Bader Jamous, stressed that the issue of detainees and forcibly disappeared in Syria was a crucial non-negotiable issue and that Syrians were entrusted with it and that the SNC was sparing no effort to find a radical solution.

The SNC President discussed with the members and management of the organization issues related to detainees, prisoners of conscience and forcibly disappeared persons in Syria. He further offered an overview of the work of the SNC’s specialized technical committees at the international level for this file highlighting the SNC’s continued endeavors to prioritize this file ahead of the political solution.

He explained that the main problem with the regime in Syria was a political one related to the regime’s violence, oppression, tyranny and criminal practices which continue to date. He indicated that the regime employs threats, detention, torture, disappearance and killing in addition to committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

He clarified that the SNC’s legal office and its detainees and forcibly disappeared people’s committee work tirelessly on this issue to reach a way to release all detainees and reveal the fate of disappeared persons in addition to looking into approaches to reparation and redress. The SNC is also working at the international level to find mechanisms to make criminals stand before justice and prepare for the transitional justice that goes hand in hand with the political solution based on UNSCR 2254.

During the meeting, important discussions were held with professionals and legal experts from the organization on the tragic conditions of detainees in regime prisons, continued arbitrary arrests, forced disappearance of returnees to Syria, and the regime’s refusal to collaborate with any international or UN body concerned with this file and its constant attempts to obscure the facts and the crimes to evade accountability.