Mr Al Ghantawi, who left Syria across the border to Lebanon at the beginning of May 2012, was arrested by the Lebanese Military Intelligence at his new home on 6 May 2012. Relatives and friends were not informed about his whereabouts but there are reports that he was then handed over to General Security and brought to the General Security's retention centre in Adlieh district, Beirut. Given that usually only persons waiting to be expelled are detained at this detention centre, we have reason to fear that Mr Al Ghantawi's expulsion to Syria is imminent. This would put him at high risk of torture.

We fear for Mr Al Ghantawi's physical and mental integrity should he be expelled to Syria, because the use of torture in Syria is widespread and systematic. This fear is further strengthened by reports of cases in which Syrian nationals were expelled to their country of origin. According to our sources, some of them are now held at the Palestine detention centre of the Syrian Military Intelligence in Al Qazzaz district in Damascus. This is one of the Syrian detention centres known for systematic torture and ill-treatment of inmates as well as exceptionally inhumane detention conditions.