Syrian Kurd disappears, risks torture, 25/09/2009
A Syrian Kurdish man has been forcibly returned to Syria from Cyprus. He was detained on arrival, and has not been seen since: he has been subjected to enforced disappearance and is in grave danger of torture.
Berzani Karro, who is 20, is now known to have been arrested at Damascus airport on 27 June. His father has since made numerous inquiries with the Syrian authorities about his son’s fate and whereabouts, including at a number of detention centres and prisons around the country, but they have denied holding him in their custody. One State Security officer in the predominantly Kurdish north-eastern town where he lives, Amouda, told his father that his family name alone was enough to have led to him being arrested: an uncle with the same family name is a prominent member of the outlawed Kurdish Left Party of Syria (al-Hizb al-Yasari al-Kurdi fi Suria), and now lives in exile in Sweden.
