‘Syrian regime, which once occupied Lebanon, used kidnapping and enforced disappearance as a tool to silence opponents,' human rights advocate Ghassan Moukheiber tells Anadolu
Nine Lebanese have been released from Syrian prisons since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime this weekend, reviving hopes of determining the fate of thousands who have vanished in Syria's detention centers.
Lebanese authorities estimate that thousands of people have vanished over their opposition to the Syrian military presence in Lebanon.
In 2018, the Lebanese Parliament passed a law mandating investigations into cases of enforced disappearances and identifying the whereabouts of those who disappeared over the past four decades.
With Assad gone from power, hopes renewed in Lebanon for the return of the “forgotten.”
"The Syrian regime, which once occupied Lebanon, used kidnapping and enforced disappearance as a tool to silence opponents and tighten its grip on the country, often in collaboration with certain Lebanese political factions,” human rights advocate Ghassan Moukheiber told Anadolu.
Assad, Syria's leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime groups took control of Damascus early Sunday, ending the Baath Party rule, which had been in power since 1963.
After his downfall, anti-regime forces freed thousands of detainees from regime detention centers, including the Sednaya Prison in Damascus, notorious for torture and abuse.
Rights groups estimate that thousands of prisoners were systematically and secretly killed in Sednaya, with the ousted regime carrying out mass executions without trial between 2011 and 2015, averaging 50 executions per week.
- Worst prisons
According to Moukheiber, Lebanese authorities estimate that around 17,000 people had been forcibly disappeared in Lebanon.
“Current estimates put their number at around 4,000 people, with around 700 to 1,500 believed to be held inside Syria,” he added.
On Tuesday, Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said that nine citizens had returned to Lebanon after being released in Syria after Assad's ouster.
Moukheiber, a former lawmaker, attributed the lack of precise figures about the missing Lebanese in Syria to the fact that many families refrained from reporting cases due to their distrust in previous parliamentary and human rights committees.
“The Assad regime was uncooperative on the issue of the missing, and successive Lebanese governments were complicit,” he said.
“Syrian officials consistently denied the presence of Lebanese detainees in their prisons."
Despite the Assad regime's denial, Damascus occasionally released Lebanese detainees, either individually or in groups.
“They used the detainees as political leverage against certain Lebanese parties,” Moukheiber said.
“The Assad regime prisons are among the worst in the world,” he said. “Thank God, with the fall of this regime, new information is being revealed about the missing Lebanese."
- Painful history
Following Assad's fall, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati decided to form an "emergency crisis cell" to address the issue of the missing Lebanese citizens in Syria.
The Lebanese government said that the move followed the release of detainees from Syrian prisons.
During Syria's 29-year military presence in Lebanon (1976–2005), hundreds of Lebanese were detained and transferred to Syrian prisons for various reasons, including affiliation with opposition parties or suspicions of collaborating with "hostile" entities.
Many others faced enforced disappearance without clear reasons, particularly during the Lebanese civil war (1975–1990).
In earlier periods, the Syrian regime released Lebanese detainees in two waves: the first in 1998, involving 121 individuals, and the second in 2000, with 54 people released.
Lebanese rights groups, however, maintain that hundreds remain in Syrian prisons, a claim denied by Damascus.
According to the Association of Lebanese Political Detainees in Syrian Prisons, an NGO, the number of forcibly disappeared Lebanese citizens in Syrian prisons is estimated at 622.
