Alkarama has learned that the Syrian authorities have managed to bring back the young Syrian Azmi Derri Mohamed Al Haddar to his country after 18 years of arbitrary detention and hardship in Iraqi prisons, linked to allegations of illegal border crossing and involvement with an armed group, for which he had been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Al Haddar’s family expressed their gratitude for Alkarama’s work in following up on their son’s case, as he has now been able to resume a normal life in his country. They also call on Alkarama to urge the new Syrian authorities to step up efforts to repatriate Syrian nationals detained abroad, and to accelerate improvements in the human rights situation in the country after decades of repression and intimidation under the former regime.
Alkarama had submitted, on 15 September 2023, an urgent appeal to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances regarding the arbitrary detention of the Syrian citizen in Iraq, Azmi Derri Mohamed Al Haddar, in order to prevent his deportation to Syria, where his life was at risk and where he faced enforced disappearance and torture by the former regime, which made Syria one of the worst countries in the world in terms of human rights and enforced disappearances.
Alkarama learned that the Iraqi authorities transferred Al Haddar on 10 September 2023 from Al-Rusafa prison in Baghdad to the residency department in Karrada, in preparation for his deportation to Syria.
Previous action by Alkarama
Previously, on 11 May 2023, Alkarama had sent an urgent appel to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, urging him to call on Iraq not to return Azmi Derri Mohamed Al Haddar to the authorities in Damascus.
Al Haddar was born in March 1992 into a Bedouin tribe in Homs, Syria, and was arrested in December 2006, at the age of 14, by US forces at the Iraqi–Syrian border. He was later handed over to the Iraqi army and forced under torture to confess to belonging to a terrorist organization, which he has consistently denied. He appeared before an Iraqi court without legal representation and was sentenced to 15 years in prison following an unfair trial, on charges of illegal border crossing and membership in a terrorist group.
Al Haddar was held in arbitrary detention without trial in Al-Rusafa prison (formerly known as “Transfers”), a detention facility used for deportations, before being transferred to the residency department in Karrada and later to Syria.