29 September 2014
Mr Ariel Dulitzky
Chairperson-Rapporteur
Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office at Geneva
8-14, avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10
BY EMAIL: wgeid@ohchr.org, sr-torture@ohchr.org, coisyria@ohchr.org
COPY TO: Special Rapporteur on Torture, Commission of Inquiry on Syria
URGENT APPEAL
Re: Syria – Enforced disappearance of Mr Ahmad Shaar since August 2013
Alk ref: 2014/917
Syria has acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on 21 April 1969.
Mr Chairman, distinguished members of the Working Group,
We write to bring to your attention the case of Mr Ahmad Shaar who disappeared after being arrested on 22 August 2013 by members of a militia affiliated to the National Defence Army which is acting on behalf of the Syrian Army. For more than a year, he has been enforcedly disappeared and was last seen in August 2014 in Branch 235, also called the “Palestinian Branch”, in Damascus, where he is at high risk of being tortured.
We refer to:
Mr Ahmad Shaar (أحمد شعار) is aged 62 (born on 2 April 1952). Mr Shaar is married and owns a furniture shop located in Kouatli Street in Lattakia, Syria. His family lives in Qadora Building, Southern Corniche, Lattakia. He holds the Syrian passport n° 001902669.
Abduction and Enforced disappearance
On 22 August 2013 at 7 a.m., Mr Shaar was at his shop with his assistant seller aged 25, when three officers from the “Shabiha Hilal Al Assad” militia, acting on behalf of the National Army Defence, arrived. Two of the three soldiers waited outside while the third went inside the shop, forced Mr Shaar to get out and put him into his car which left for an unknown place.
At around 10 a.m., his mother tried to call Mr Shaar but got no answer. Later, his wife called the shop and talked to his assistant who reported the abduction. He described what he had just witnessed and explained how the three soldiers, dressed with military uniforms from the National Defence Army, arrested her husband.
In August 2014, a detainee, an Aleppo native soldier, contacted the family and told them that he was held with Mr Shaar, in the Branch 235 (“Palestinian Branch”) in Damascus, which is a department of the military security. Moreover, about a month ago, Mr Shaar’s brother-in-law told Mrs Shaar that her husband was detained in this detention facility and that members of the “Shabiha Hilal Al Assad” militia were asking for money in exchange for his release.
According to his family, Mr Shaar had been threatened several times by Shabiha’s members before being arrested. The first time, his nephew, 30, was arrested instead of him as he was in the shop, by a group of armed men of the Shabiha Hilal Al Assad. Mr Shaar even attempted to flee to Lebanon several times but fearing retaliations for his family, he remained in Lattakia. The Shabiha’s members regularly visited his shop threatening him and asking him for money.
Mr Shaar’s relatives have taken various actions before the Syrian authorities to locate him and enquire on his fate. However, the authorities not only failed to answer their requests but also denied his disappearance and detention.
Since his arrest, i.e. thirteen months ago, his family has not heard from him and is completely unaware of his fate. Furthermore, Alkarama expresses great concerns over his physical and mental integrity while disappeared between the hands of the National Defence army which is widely known for practicing torture.
Requests
We therefore consider this to be a case of disappearance falling under your mandate and solicit your urgent intervention with the Syrian authorities to ensure that Mr Shaar be immediately released or at the very least, placed under the protection of the law. We respectfully request you to ask the Syrian authorities to inform his family of his fate and to allow them to be in contact with him without restrictions.
We furthermore request that the systematic practice of enforced disappearance be stopped and solicit your intervention with the Syrian authorities to ensure all appropriate measures to abolish it be taken.
Thank you for your consideration of this matter. Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of any assistance.
Yours faithfully,
Me Rachid Mesli Me Amal Al Naasan
Director, Legal department, Alkarama President, Human Rights Guardians
Enclosed:
- Mr Shaar’s WGEID Form.