Most recently, Alkarama was informed of a raid by plain clothes Air Force Intelligence agents on the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) in Damascus on 16 February 2012. 14 employees of the Center and two visitors were arrested, including Mazen Darwish, the Center's founder and journalist, well known blogger Razan Ghazzawi and Husain Ghrer who had been blogging about the human rights situation in Syria since long before the current opposition movement started. All of them had been persecuted for their opinions and activities in the context of peaceful demonstrations before and are now again subjected to arbitrary arrest and secret detention.

According to our sources, the activists were then brought to the Air Force Intelligence's detention centre at Al Mazza Military Airport at around 4 p.m. on the day of their arrest and nine of them remain in detention to this date. Alkarama continues to fear for their physical and mental integrity as released detainees describe the systematic inhumane treatment and torture they suffered while in detention.

Of the 16 individuals arrested during the raid on the SCM, the seven women were released on 18 February 2012, but with the obligation of appearing at the Air Force Intelligence every day between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. This measure has clearly been imposed on them to hamper their ability to move and act freely and limits their capacity to further campaign for the release of their colleagues as well as for the respect of freedom of expression in Syria.