A June 7, 2013 news release from the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) reports that 22 year old Suhaib Hassan Swaidan, a Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) volunteer, was held against his will in the Syrian city of Homs on May 23, 2013. Various sources confirmed that he had been arrested by the Military Intelligence, part of the Syrian Army, when he was crossing the Cultural Centre checkpoint with a SARC First Aid Squad Ambulance Team. The checkpoint is in the Al-Midan area near Al-Mahatta Avenue, located in the city of Homs.
After Swaidan was arrested, there has been no information given to his family regarding any charges against him or his whereabouts from the Military Intelligence. However, some recently released former detainees confirmed that Swaidan is being held at the Military Intelligence Prison, located in Homs. Another report stated that he has been mistreated by the prison authorities, and it is feared that he is being tortured because of his solitary confinement.
Swaidan has sustained two injuries while working with SARC. In August 2011, shrapnel caused by nearby shelling hit him in his neck. Then, in January 2012 during First Aid missions in Homs, a bullet hit his thigh, which permanently damaged his nerves and the structure of his leg, requiring rehabilitation. Swaidan is a second year student at the Faculty of Economics in Hama, a Syrian city. He has been a volunteer with the SARC since 2011. He was a member of SARC's Human Resources Committee of Homs City Branch and a leader of a First Aid Squad.
The wrongful imprisonment of Suhaib Hassan Swaidan is a new low in the human rights abuses being committed against innocent Syrians. To arrest an innocent person, now disabled, who worked to save other people's lives without presenting any charges or informing his family, shows that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is not trying to maintain "stability"--this is about tainting anyone as an enemy, destroying any opposition, and upholding a tyrant state!!!
How many Syrians have to die and be wrongfully imprisoned before President Al-Assad is taken to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to be tried for crimes against humanity? "No evidence exists" CANNOT be used as an excuse, because PLENTY of evidence exists to prove that President Al-Assad is a war criminal!!! By failing to take President Al-Assad to the ICC, the international community is complicit in maintaining a corrupt political system in Syria and proving that human rights abusers will be rewarded instead of punished, like they should be!!!
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