Alkarama made an appeal to the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), asking it to intercede with the Syrian authorities in the case of Mr Shusha in order that he be released or at least be put under the protection of the law. Since his arrest and disappearance, his family is not only anxious about the outcome of his situation but is also currently suffering in terms of material gains.

Mohammed Osama Shusha, born in 1970, a resident of Aleppo, Syria, disappeared in New Aleppo after being arrested in September 2005 by members of the political police dressed in civilian clothing, who were not issued with a judicial warrant. The family later learned that he had spent 20 days in the military hospital before being transferred to the premises of the political police in Aleppo, where he was detained for eight months in solitary confinement. During this period, his family received no information related to his disappearance and the authorities denied his detention.

In May 2006, Mr Shusha was transferred to the political police center in Fayhaa, Damascus, and it was there that his family was finally able to visit him. In October 2006 he was again transferred to Adra prison in Damascus, where his family regularly visited him up until February 2009.

During his first visit to Fayhaa in May 2006, Mr Shusha was wearing many bandages on various parts of his body. Despite the fact that due to the presence of a sergeant and a captain of the political police he was unable to speak freely, he was warned that any victim of an arrest is likely to be tortured with electric shocks, and suspended on a tire and beaten (method known as "tire" (dullab)). The family believes that was the treatment he endured.

During his detention in Fayhaa and Adra prison, the authorities allowed visits, but never provided any official proof of documentation for his detention or any documents laying down the charges against him. He was never tried. The family learned through unofficially sources that he would be appearing before a military court, but since then he has disappeared from Adra rison.

The last time his mother saw him was on 27 February 2009 when she visited him for an hour and a half. She later learned that he was possibly transferred to the Palestine section or the section of the military intelligence services in Damascus prison. Since then, the authorities claim that he is no longer at Adra prison, and have not given any information on his current place of detention or even acknowledgement of his detention.

Alkarama is reminded that Syria ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on 21 April 1969 and the Convention against Torture on 19 August 2004. Syria's initial report will be considered by the Committee against Torture during its 44th session from 26 April to 14 May 2010.