The Syrian government has received five of its nationals who had been arbitrarily detained by the authorities in Benghazi affiliated to retired Marshal Khalifa Haftar, after their arrest for celebrating the fall of the former regime in their country and the announcement of the “liberation” of the capital Damascus in December 2024.
The individuals are Ahmad Alothman, Ali Alsalkhadi, Anas Mohammed Ali Alsalkhadi, Khaled Alsalkhadi, and Osama Mohammed Sayfeddeen Alsalkhadi. All belong to the millions of Syrians who fled the war under the former regime. They had entered Libya legally, holding valid Syrian passports and regular visas.
The families of the detainees expressed their gratitude to Alkarama for its efforts in defending their case and for engaging with United Nations human rights mechanisms. They stated that the Syrian authorities took custody of the five young men from the authorities in Benghazi, before they were flown to the Jordanian capital Amman, where their relatives received them at the Nassib border crossing between Jordan and Syria.
Previously, Alkarama had received information indicating that de facto authorities in Benghazi were using Syrian detainees as leverage, making their release conditional on political recognition by the new Syrian government. Alkarama subsequently referred the matter again to UN human rights mechanisms to inform them of these developments.
The five men had been living and working in stable conditions in Benghazi. Like many Syrians worldwide, they expressed joy following the departure of Bashar al-Assad, reinforcing their hope of returning home. In this context, they participated in a peaceful gathering before being arrested without a warrant by plainclothes security officers.
After their arrest, their families were left without any news and lived in uncertainty about their fate. They only learned of their detention through the testimony of a former detainee, who reported their presence at Al-Qarnada detention center, as well as the deterioration of their health and the torture they were subjected to. Accused without evidence of belonging to a terrorist group, they were forced under torture to confess.
Alkarama’s actions
On Wednesday, 18 June 2025, Alkarama issued an urgent appeal to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) concerning these five Syrian nationals, abducted on 11 December 2024 by “internal security” forces affiliated to retired Marshal Khalifa Haftar and his sons in Benghazi, eastern Libya. The organization also referred the case to the Special Rapporteur on the rights of migrants and to the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
This was the second step taken by Alkarama in this case, following the disappearance of the five Syrian nationals, who had been deprived of all contact with their families and were last seen at Al-Qarnada military prison.
On 18 February 2025, Alkarama had already submitted a communication to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), highlighting the arbitrary nature of their detention from multiple perspectives.
Alkarama stressed that their arrest had no legal basis: they were detained without a warrant, without being informed of the reasons, and without access to legal assistance or judicial review. It further underlined that this deprivation of liberty stemmed directly from the exercise of fundamental rights, including freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, as guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In addition, the victims were denied legal assistance and were never able to challenge the legality of their detention before an independent authority, in clear violation of their right to a fair trial. Finally, the detention was based on discriminatory grounds, as their Syrian nationality alone led the authorities in Benghazi to wrongly associate them with a terrorist group.
For all these reasons, Alkarama called on the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances to engage with the Libyan authorities in order to obtain official information on the fate and whereabouts of the five missing persons, and to demand their immediate release and respect for their fundamental rights.
Alkarama reiterates the need for the release of all persons arbitrarily detained in Libya, particularly in prisons run by militias affiliated with Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s forces in Benghazi, as well as those linked to the government and the so-called deterrence apparatus forces, accused of involvement in serious human rights violations and in the management of unlawful detention facilities.