The Syrian Network for Human Rights condemned on Wednesday the death of Syrian citizen Alaa Adnan Al-Amin, who died as a result of torture at the hands of the Syrian Democratic Forces, which had arrested him months earlier in the city of Qamishli in the countryside of Al-Hasakah.
In a documented statement, the network said that the SDF arrested the young man Alaa – who held Swedish citizenship and had returned to Syria a few months earlier to get married – on 20 October 2025, after raiding his family home in Qamishli without presenting a lawful arrest warrant or informing him of any specific charge.
The statement explained that Al-Amin remained detained for months in one of the SDF’s detention centres under a policy of enforced disappearance, with his family unable to learn his fate or place of detention despite repeated inquiries.
The network said that the family received a phone call on 8 March 2026 asking them to collect the body from Al-Hasakah Hospital. According to what the family told the network, clear signs of brutal torture were visible on the body, including a hole in the head, fractures to the skull and rib cage, as well as bruising and decomposition, confirming that he had been subjected to harsh detention conditions that led to his death. The forensic examiner reportedly suggested that the death may have occurred in January.
In a grave development, the network also documented an attack on the victim’s mourning tent by gunmen believed to belong to the Jwanin Shoreshger faction linked to the People’s Protection Units, following statements by his relatives about their son having been killed under torture. Preliminary information indicates that the gunmen set fire to the mourning tent and opened fire on those present, including members of the victim’s family. Investigations are still under way to uncover the circumstances of the attack.
The network stressed that the arbitrary detention of civilians, their enforced disappearance, and their torture to death constitute a grave violation of international humanitarian law and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as a war crime not subject to any statute of limitations.
The network also placed this crime within the broader pattern of ongoing abuses by the SDF. Its statistics indicate that at least 123 people, including five children and four women, had died under torture or ill-treatment in SDF prisons and detention centres up to 10 March 2026.
In the conclusion of its statement, the network called for an urgent and independent international investigation into the killing of Alaa Al-Amin, for those responsible to be held accountable, and urged the UN Security Council and the United Nations to pressure the SDF to release immediately all those arbitrarily detained, reveal the fate of the thousands forcibly disappeared in its prisons, and compensate the families of the victims.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
