Syria: Further information on fear of forcible return and new concern: Torture

Index Number: MDE 24/041/2006
Date Published: 1 June 2006
Categories: Middle East And North Africa, Syria

Three of the eight Iranian Arab activists named below have reportedly been released, but the rest are believed to be still detained incommunicado at unknown locations, where they are at risk of torture and of being forcibly returned to Iran. There are unconfirmed reports that two of them have already been returned. The eight (Faleh 'Abdullah al-Mansuri (m), aged 60, President of the Ahwazi Liberation Organisation;(ALO), Dutch national; Rasool Mezrea' (m), ALO member; Taher 'Ali Mezra' (m), aged 40; Jamal 'Abdawi (m); Musa Suwari (m), aged 32, university student; Ahmad 'Abd al-Jaber Abiat (m), aged 20, student; Jamal Obeidi (m), aged 34, student and Chair of Ahwazi Student Union in Syria; and 'Issa Yassin al-Musawi (m), aged 30, university student), had been arrested in Damascus on 11 May. Ahmad 'Abd al-Jaber Abiat, Musa Suwari and 'Issa Yassin al-Musawi were apparently released some time between then and 19 May, but nothing is known of their current whereabouts, where they were held or how they were treated in custody.