(Geneva, February 16, 2015) – The Syrian government should immediately free the prominent Syrian human rights defenders Mazen Darwish, Hani Al-Zitani and Hussein Gharir, 71 human rights groups said today, on the third anniversary of their arrest. The three men have been arbitrarily deprived of their liberty on the basis of their human rights activities.

Alkarama welcomes the release, on 18 December 2014, of Jadia Abdallah Nawfal and Omar Al Shaar two Syrian human rights defenders arrested on their return from Beirut where they were attending human rights conferences and workshops. Detained in Adra Prison, they were freed yesterday following a decision issued by the investigating judge.

On 2 December 2014, Alkarama and Human Rights Guardians sent a communication to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), regarding the disappearance, between August 2012 and May 2013, of three Syrian citizens, all living and working in the neighbourhoods of Al Lataminah, a village in northern Syria part of the Hama governorate. The three victims were arrested by members of the governmental security forces and their fates remain unknown do date.

On 28 August 2014, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), during its 70th Session, adopted an opinion (Opinion No. 36/2014) on the case of 35-year old activist and PhD student at Damascus University, Ammar Tellawi, considering his detention "arbitrary" and calling for his release.