Northern Syria did not expect the young Syrian Mohammed Abdul Rahman Majou to be the last stop of his life, after he died under torture in one of the secret detention centers in the capital, Damascus, which is run by the Syrian regime.

The young man Majou, who was displaced from a suburb of Aleppo years ago, had settled in the areas controlled by the Syrian opposition in the city of Atarib in the countryside of Aleppo, as a result of the clashes and battles that were raging on the lines of contact between the armed factions and the regime forces.

Finally, Majou decided to return to his hometown of Aleppo and settle his security situation last May, a mechanism that the Syrian regime is working on for those who wish to return to its areas of control, which he says aims to exonerate the returnees and return to their normal lives.

However, the young man who returned was arrested about a month after his return, specifically on June 15, by members of the Military Security in Aleppo, to be cut off from his family since that time, and he is among the missing Syrians.

A source close to the young man's family said that he was arrested without presenting an official warrant, and prevented his family from communicating with him and assigning a lawyer to follow up on his case, or even know where he is being held, in order to visit him and check on him.

Corpse and torture

The close source adds in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, that the family of the young man Majou received a call on August 3, from a member of the Syrian regime confirms his death in one of the Syrian prisons in the capital, Damascus, without any additional details, to be delivered two days later the afflicted family his body in the city of Aleppo.

The source indicates that signs of torture appeared on the body of the young man, while his family preferred to keep his case secret and not to open an investigation, fearing security prosecution and accountability.

The source concludes that the young Mohammed was alone with his parents, and died, leaving behind his two children and his wife to an unknown fate, after he dreamed of a safe return reported by loyal media, before the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad finally stated that his government does not arrest returning refugees.

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The killing of the Syrian youth under torture does not seem to be an individual story of the liquidation of returnees from areas controlled by the Syrian opposition or neighboring countries and asylum, as dozens of young Syrians faced the same fate, making the process a systematic policy warned by Syrian and international human rights organizations.

Last April, regime forces arrested two young Syrians from Sweida governorate (southeast of Damascus), Nader Nader and Ihab Nader, after forcibly deporting them from Lebanon about a week ago.

The director of the local Sweida 24 network said in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, that the two young men were arrested on charges of evading reserve service in the Syrian regime forces, and will not be released before performing military service.

Prior to the two young men from Sweida, security authorities arrested two displaced people from the town of Madaya in Damascus countryside in August 2022, while they were returning from Turkish territory through the Kasb border crossing, despite having made a security settlement through so-called reconciliation committees.

A member of the Syrian Legal Association, lawyer Abdel Nasser Hoshan, describes the forcibly displaced Syrians as the regime's trump card, "He did not abandon them in vain, as for him they are not from the useful people of Syria, that is, they are traitors in his view, as they are a means of collective punishment of his opponents through arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, torture and killing under torture, to get rid of them and prevent the return of any refugees or displaced persons."

Hoshan said, in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, that the arrests will not stop, because they are a source of funding for the regime, through bribery, extortion and abuse of influence, which turned these crimes into compound crimes, where extorts the families of the victims, to push them to sell their property to them, in order to get news about the fate of the detainees.

Reasons that prevent return

The United Nations estimates the number of Syrian refugees at about 5.5 million refugees who fled to neighboring countries and Europe, most of whom refuse to return for security reasons related to the political position of the government, and economic ones related to the poor living conditions that Syria has reached, due to the collapse of the economy and currency.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights documented the killing of 15281,2011 Syrians under torture from March 2023 to June 15039, including <>,<> people in Syrian regime detention.

The Syrian network says in a report that the number of detainees held by the Syrian regime exceeded 135,2011 people from 2022 until August 112, including about <>,<> cases of enforced disappearance.

According to the report, torture practices in Syria continue without holding those involved accountable, "and that the restoration of relations by some Arab countries with the Syrian regime, which continues to practice the most heinous methods of torture against arbitrarily detained detainees before their release, means a green light to liquidate them."

The head of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, Fadel Abdel Ghani, confirmed that the case of the displaced Majou who died under torture is one of the cases discovered, stressing that there are many similar violations that occurred at the hands of the Syrian regime and were not discovered, as a result of the difficulties facing documenting these cases.

Similar fate

Abdul Ghani said in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, that the reasons that prevent the displaced and refugees from returning to their homes and places of original residence, linked to what they can be exposed to from the fate similar to the fate of the young Majo, and not as claimed by the President of the Syrian regime Bashar al-Assad that the refugees do not return because of the poor living situation and power and water cuts.

Abdul Ghani pointed out that Assad is trying to blackmail Arab countries by demanding the reconstruction of cities that his forces destroyed over the heads of their inhabitants, and forced others to leave.

The Syrian human rights defender held the countries that force Syrian refugees to return to Syria fully legally and morally responsible for the horrific violations they are subjected to upon their return, which amount to loss of life.