On 27 October 2013, Mahameed, a 36-year-old Palestinian born in Qamlishli and resident of Al Jawadia – a village in Al Malikiyah District, in the upper northeastern corner of Syria, at the border with Turkey and Iraq – was arrested in his clothing store by a patrol of the People's Protection Unit (YPG), the armed wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party in Syrian Kurdistan. As Mahameed's arrest occurred just a day after the Kurdish forces seized control of the neighbouring city of Yarubiya, after a battle against the Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State, his relatives believed that he was abducted as an act of retaliation, the YPG believing he had links with these jihadist groups.

Left without any information on his fate and whereabouts for several days after his arrest, his family had inquired at several YPG detention centres. They were finally able to locate him and visit him in the prison of Al Malikiyah, but since 4 November 2014, they were denied visits and any information on him. Alkarama and Human Rights Guardians therefore submitted his case to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (CoI Syria) on 7 April 2015.

Since 6 June 2016, Mahameed's wife can finally visit him once per month in Al Malikiyah prison. She however referred to Alkarama that she found her husband affected with several diseases caused by a lack of clean water and poor conditions of detention.

"We welcome the fact that Mahameed can finally receive the visits of his relatives in prison after such a long time kept without any contact with the outside world and with his family left unaware of his whereabouts," comments Inès Osman, Alkarama's Legal Officer for the Mashreq. "Concerns remains, however over his poor conditions of detention. Detainees' dignity must always be respected: the Kurdish forces shall ensure at the minimum that he is allowed to have regular access to a doctor as well as to clean water and adequate food."

For more information or an interview, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Dir: +41 22 734 10 08)