On 22 August 2013, three soldiers from the 'Shabiha Hilal Al Assad' pro-government militia, dressed in military uniforms from the National Defence Force, stormed into Shaar's furniture shop in Latakia, arrested him and forced him into a car, which left for an unknown location.

In August 2014, a co-detainee contacted Shaar's family to tell them that Shaar was held with him in Damascus's Military Intelligence Branch 235, also known as the 'Palestinian Branch', where torture is commonly practiced.

Shaar's relatives reported that he had been threatened several times by the Shabiha militiamen before being arrested. They regularly visited his shop threatening him and asking him for money.

Despite undertaking various steps before the Syrian authorities to locate him, his family has not heard from him since his abduction, and the Syrian authorities keep on denying his disappearance and detention.

Concerned that Shaar is at high risk of being tortured in the grounds of the 'Palestinian Branch', Alkarama and Human Rights Guardians sent an urgent appeal to the Working Group on Involuntary and Enforced Disappearances (WGEID) to request their intervention towards the Syrian authorities so that Ahmad Shaar be released or, at the very least, put under the protection of the law.

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