About Kamal Ahmad's activism

Despite his young age, Kamal Ahmad has been a political opponent for many years to the Al Assad's regime. Even before the beginning of the Syrian uprising in 2011, he was an active member of the Syrian Communist Party. In November 2011, he co-founded the Kurdish-Arab Fraternity Coordination Committee, a group of young Arab and Kurdish activists established "in response to the regime's rigorous attempts to create a rift in the Syrian social fabric". Kamal was in charge of coordinating the committee's activities in his hometown. At the beginning of the uprising in 2011, he took part in demonstrations calling for the end of Al Assad's regime.

In 2012, after a large influx of internally displaced persons in Aleppo governorate provoked by the large-scale bombing of civilians in Dara'a, Hama and Homs by the regime forces, Kamal Ahmad decided to become active in humanitarian and relief work. He started working with the Red Crescent and the Jesuit Refugee Service, securing the basic needs of the displaced persons and working in a shelter school in the old town of Aleppo.

Given his involvement in political and humanitarian activities, he has always been at risk of being arrested or disappeared, which eventually happened.

About Kamal Ahmad's disappearance
On 12 August 2012, Kamal was abducted in the early afternoon by three members of the Air Force Intelligence services in civilian clothes in the Ashrafieh district of Aleppo, in front of the Bechara El Khoury School where he was working. That day, he was the only person to be abducted from the school showing a clear will from them to arrest him for his political engagement against the regime. Several eye witnesses were able to clearly recognise the members of the Air Force Intelligence services of Aleppo.

Where is Kamal Ahmad?
After his arrest, Kamal's wife tried to contact him and went to several centres run by various branches of the Syrian Security services in Aleppo to ask about his fate and whereabouts. However, none of the steps taken were successful.

She was eventually forced to leave Syria and her job at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees after she received serious threats from the Syrian security services. She is still trying to get to know where Kamal is, but she has had no contact with him since his arrest. One of her relatives asked the Air Force Intelligence services in Aleppo but they kept denying his detention and none of his questions were answered.

As most of the survivors of enforced disappearances described having been subjected to severe torture during their secret detention, we are extremely concerned for Kamal's life and physical and mental integrity. Today, Alkarama solicited the urgent intervention of the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances with the Syrian authorities to ensure that investigations about the victim's fate be carried about promptly and that he be immediately released, or at the very least, placed under the protection of the law.