Mr Yacoub Shamoun ( (يعقوب شمعون, aged 48 years and from Amouda-Qamishli, was arbitrarily arrested on 2 July 1985 by agents of the Syrian State Security. Since this date, Mr Shamoun has disappeared and his family had no news of his fate until 2001 when it was informed he was being held in Sednaya prison. Again enforced disappeared in 2008 following the events in this prison which led to the death of over 20 prisoners, Mr Shamoun only reappeared in 2011. Mr Shamoun was transferred from Sednaya Prison to the Military jail of Al Rakka where he remains detained without any judicial procedures.

Alkarama is concerned at the ongoing widespread violation of human rights in Syria. On 14 June 2011, we submitted a new communication regarding a further 80 people who have been extra-judicially executed by the security forces, some dying under torture to the Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions. Alkarama was also able to collect information regarding three individuals who died under torture, including two minors, as described below:

Arbitrary arrests, torture and other human rights abuses, including crimes against humanity, continue to be committed by the Syrian authorities with total impunity.

Alkarama has learned that three mass graves were discovered in Daraa on 16 May 2011, in which a large number of bodies carrying signs of serious torture were found. We have only been able to identify the names of six individuals found in the grave: four members of the same family, including the father (68 years old) and his four sons (aged 43, 35, 30, 22 years old); as well as the body of a 14-year-old child. All of them had previously been arrested by security forces during the blockade of Daraa.