Assad regime forces arrested citizen Mohammad Darawsheh while he was on his way to check on his child, who has been suffering from leukemia since 2017 and is undergoing treatment in a hospital in the capital, Damascus.
The Ahrar Houran local activist group reported that Darawsheh was detained at a checkpoint south of Damascus during his trip to visit his only son, Ali, who is battling leukemia and is receiving treatment at a hospital in Damascus.
The group noted that the Assad regime exploits civilian arrests as a means of extorting large sums of money or trading for weapons. Arbitrary arrests of civilians are common, especially at military checkpoints along the Damascus-Daraa international highway, notably at the Center and Mankat al-Hatab checkpoints.
The Ahrar Houran activist group stressed that Darawsheh is a civilian with no affiliation to any military group. He was detained while trying to secure treatment for his child, whose health is gradually deteriorating.
In response, a local armed group in the town of Eastern Karak threatened to escalate against regime forces if Darawsheh is not released, giving the regime 24 hours to set him free.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) stated that the regime uses arrest as a tool against civilians to extort money to fund its military machine and as a form of collective punishment against Syrians who participated in the revolution.
The SOC emphasized the need to continue the struggle against the Assad regime until it is overthrown and the Syrian people’s demands for freedom, dignity, and democracy are fulfilled. It called for accountability for crimes committed against civilians, the release of all detainees, and revealing the fate of the forcibly disappeared.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
