Syrian families’ ‘unbearable’ wait to know fate of detainee relatives

Families of Syrian detainees have been searching for their missing loved ones since thousands of prisoners were released after the fall of the Assad regime on Sunday.

The family of a Syrian dentist who was arrested along with her six children has told the BBC they are still hoping to find them – as is the sister of a single mother who disappeared mysteriously.

Meanwhile, the daughter of a US-based psychotherapist who was snatched in 2017 and is thought to be dead says she has been buoyed by videos of people who were declared dead being found alive.

As rebel forces swept across the country in recent weeks, they freed thousands of political prisoners held in government jails – including the notorious Saydnaya prison near the capital, Damascus.

But with torture and executions commonplace in these places under Bashar al-Assad’s government, many are still waiting to see if their relatives are among those freed.

Ghinwa Muhammad Azzam was in the port city of Latakia when she went missing in 2017.

Ghinwa’s sister, Sanaa, tearfully told the BBC she did not know how her sister disappeared, or who might have taken her after she left for her job as a rug maker.

Described as a “beautiful” and “very loving” single mother, she was not thought to be political or involved with any opposition parties.

Aside from a single call to her daughter six weeks after her disappearance, saying “just pray for me”, Sanaa said Ms Azzam hasn’t been heard from since.

“I want closure, I want to know if she is dead or hurt,” Sanaa said.

She says a relative made contact with a prison guard two years ago, who said Ms Azzam was in a high-security prison and had an injured leg – “so we think they were torturing her” – but does not know any more than that.

That Ms Azzam’s Facebook profile “vanished” makes Sanaa suspect her sister was taken by the Syrian government.

She added: “We still hope to find her alive”, but after seeing videos of prisoners being released online, “I actually pray she is dead, it is heartbreaking”.

Following the overthrow of the Syrian government, civilians flocked to the notorious Saydnaya prison, north of the capital city of Damascus, in the hope of finding out about missing loved ones thought to be detained there.

The prison, referred to as a “human slaughterhouse” by rights groups, is where thousands of people were believed to have been detained, tortured and executed under the Assad regime.

Those who entered the military jail circulated footage showing the stark conditions inside on social media.

“I have relatives in Aleppo, but it is not easy for them to travel to Damascus to see the prison or look for missing people,” Sanaa, who lives in Texas, said.

“I hope to save my sister.”

Rania Al-Abassi was arrested from her home in Damascus in March 2013 by Syrian military intelligence officers. Her children, aged between two and 14 years old, were taken to prison with her.

Her husband, Abdul Rahman Yasin, was arrested the day before.

Rania’s sister, Naila Al-Abassi, a doctor living in Saudi Arabia, told the BBC “we cannot accept that Rania was killed”.

“Since the fall of the regime, we really hope we can see Rania and her kids again. Especially, we want to see her six children.”

At the time of their arrest, Ms Abassi’s children – Dima, Entisar, Najah, Alaa, Ahmed and Layan – were 14, 13, 11, eight, six and two respectively.

“They took Rania with her kids and since that day we don’t know anything about them,” Naila said.

The family have only received one piece of information about their detainment, which came shortly after the arrest. They believe the family was held at a prison in Damascus, known as the Palestine branch, which was operated by Syrian intelligence.

A female inmate who was released told the family in 2013 that she heard the voices of children in the prison, two weeks after the arrest.

Now that prisoners have been released, family members on the ground have visited the prisons to try to find them.

“We are watching the news and seeing people released from the prisons and looking at the videos to see if we can see them,” Naila said.

“But the prisons have been opened and we haven’t seen Rania yet. It is unbearable.”

“We were waiting for this day for 13 years,” she added. “But our wounds are still fresh now as if it happened yesterday.”

Majd Kamalmaz, a psychotherapist from Texas, disappeared in Syria in 2017. His daughter, Maryam, told the BBC she is still trying to find out what happened to him.

Mr Kamalmaz had travelled to Damascus to visit an elderly family member.

On the second day of his trip, Mr Kamalmaz – who was born in Syria but grew up and lived in the US – was stopped at a Syrian government checkpoint in Damascus, and has not been seen or heard from since that day.

Earlier this year, US intelligence officials told his family they had credible, classified information that he died in prison.

But Maryam Kamalmaz refuses to give up on the idea that her father may still be alive.

“The FBI told us he was dead – but they did not have a body or any concrete information,” she said.

“We are seeing stories of people [who] were declared dead and given death certificates and then they actually turned out to be alive.

“It renews our hope to find him alive. But if we don’t, then at least we want to find his remains and have some sort of closure.”

Maryam added: “We have people inside Syria going to the hospitals with high hopes, as well as to Saydnaya prison.

“I keep looking at the pictures and videos of people coming out of the Saydnaya prison, and thinking maybe I will see him there.”

Maryam said she does not know why her father was kidnapped. Her family believe he may have been being held as leverage by the Assad family because he was American.

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