Prison conditions for Kurds in Sednaya Prison

Syrian Committee for Human Rights – MAD has received complaints about abuses of detainees held in Sednaya Prison in Damascus by the prison administration, including the following:

• preventing the detainee speaking with his family in his own language during the interview, especially Kurdish detainees;
• each detainee is closely monitored by an officer of the prison during the interview with his family for the whole meeting;
• the meeting between the detainee and his family is very short as it lasts only up to fifteen minutes;
• the meeting between the detainee and his family is held through iron bars and they are separated by a distance of half a meter, which stops the prisoner having any physical contact such as hugs with their mother or other members of the family;
• the lack of opportunity to relax in the open air and see the sun;
• lack of health care for detainees;
• the lack hygiene especially in the  washing areas;
• the lack of nutritious and healthy food;
• permission is not given for families to meet with the detainee when they attend at the prison. Many travel a long way to see their sons, and they often have to wait for twenty-four hours before being allowed in;
• overcrowding of cells so that each person has insufficient space;
• the lack of adequate drinking water for the detainees. Read more

An urgent apeal to the public opinion about the detainee Tahsein Khairi Mamo

To Gentlemen officials:
Amnesty International.
And Human Rights Watch.
Greetings:

We  would like to inform you that the detainee Tahsein Khairi Mamo, who was arrested in the city of Aleppo – Al-Sheikh Maksoud – with four others of his comrades Nazmi Mohamed Hanan, Dilkash Shamo  Mamo, Ahmed Khalil Darwish, Yasha Khaled Qadir, who are all members of our party – the Kurdish Yekiti Party in Syria – were taken by military intelligence after they broke into Yasha Khaled’s  house  on  29 January 2007, is still missing. His fate has been unknown over the last two years in spite of his parents’ repeated and continued attempts  in asking the related authorities  to  get information about his fate, and they did not receive any answers  until now. They are afraid  that he might have been killed under torture, and all the information  confirms that he is no longer alive and that the authorities are keeping silent about it. Read more

Where is my brother Tahsein Mamo?

Aiysha Mamo has asked International Support Kurds in Syria Association – SKS for assistance to discover the circumstances and whereabouts of her brother Tahsein Mamo who has disappeared in the Syrian prison system. Aiysha who lives in Germany said, ‘I would do anything to find my brother. I think about him every day, I miss him so much’.

Tahsein’s cousin, Yaseen Mamo has also expressed his deep concern about what may have happened, and spoke of how their lives had been affected by his disappearance.

Tahsein, born 1980 in Afrin is married with one son. He lives in Aleppo.  He was arrested with four other people at the end of January 2007 during a raid by a patrol of military security officers, and they were taken to the branch of military security in Aleppo, and then on to the Investigation Branch of the military security in Damascus. Read more

Syria: Lift Blackout on Prisoners’ Fate

No Information About Many Sednaya Detainees Since Violent Response to July 2008 Riot

(New York, December 10, 2009) – Syrian authorities should make public without further delay the fate of all prisoners whose whereabouts and well-being remain a mystery almost 18 months after security forces put down a riot at the Sednaya prison in July 2008, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch released a partial list today of Sednaya detainees whose families have not been able to get any information about them. Read more