14-8-2025
Yalla News Syria: Prisoners of Opinion in Idlib Prisons: Exceptions Amid Promises of Freedom
Continued suffering for prisoners of opinion in Idlib prisons
While Damascus celebrates the evacuation of Assad regime prisons, those detained for opposing Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) continue to suffer inside Idlib prisons. On August 14, 2025, their cases remain unresolved.
Amina al-Hammam, 70, mother of Ghazwan Hassoun, detained by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) since 2019, looks at a picture of her son on the phone of one of her grandchildren in her tent in a displaced persons camp in Kafr Lusin, north of Idlib, 3/12/2024 (Omar Haj Kadour/AFP)
Idlib - "Your prisons have been dissolved," Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara announced during the unveiling of the country’s new visual identity on July 3. But even as he celebrated "the victory of the revolution" and the clearing of the former regime’s prisons, prisoners of opinion continued to suffer in northwestern Syria—held in the prisons of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the faction al-Shara led in Idlib.
Fatima al-Aboud knows these prisons well. Two weeks before al-Shara’s speech, she went to the Harem Central Prison in Idlib to visit her husband, Abd al-Razzaq al-Masri, 41, who has been detained for nearly a year. Al-Masri is accused of belonging to the international political party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which opposes HTS, and is among dozens of prisoners of opinion held in its prisons on various charges.
Between 2015 and 2024, the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) documented the arbitrary arrest of a large number of people by HTS in its areas of influence, Ayman Huda Manam, the legal office director at the SCM, told Syria Direct. Some were arrested after filming anti-HTS demonstrations or sit-ins by detainees’ families, while others expressed opinions critical of the group on social media or were accused of dealing with "hostile" parties like the US-led International Coalition, he said.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, as a transnational party aiming to establish an Islamic caliphate through non-military means, "opposes any ruling authority, and its activities may pose more security risks than ideological ones," Syrian researcher Orabi Orabi told Syria Direct. Nevertheless, "the party’s detainees must be released, with restrictions placed on their activities," he said. Regardless of the broad controversy surrounding the party, including among Syrians, "as long as its members present an idea or political vision and express their opinions through peaceful means, they are prisoners of opinion," said lawyer Ghazwan Qaranful, who resides in Turkey.
Al-Aboud visits her husband once every 35 days for 15 minutes. During her visit on June 16, al-Masri told her that the detainees had learned of the release of Assad regime officers held in Idlib prisons since 2012 and 2013. He said they asked the director of Harem prison "What about us," to which he replied, "If the sheikh [al-Shara] wills, he will release you, and if he wants you to stay, we will keep you here," al-Aboud recounted.
Last December, al-Aboud and other relatives of detainees in Idlib prisons participated in a sit-in at Saadallah al-Jabri Square in Aleppo city to demand the release of their loved ones. "The authorities arrested me and eight women who were with me. I was released after 13 days," she told Syria Direct. "I was pregnant with my daughter, Amal al-Sham, who is now seven months old."
Belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir
Al-Masri was arrested on September 8, 2024, at an olive press in his hometown, Jisr al-Shughour city in western Idlib. He was held in a prison there for a week, during which he was tortured, al-Aboud said, then transferred to the Sarmada prison. From there he was transferred again, to the al-Maasara prison in the town of Qah north of Idlib, before ultimately ending up in Harem.
This was not his first arrest. Al-Masri was arrested in 2019 and detained for seven months, then again starting in May 2023 for 11 months. Each time, the charge was belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir, his wife said.
Abd al-Razzaq al-Masri (left) with his wife and two of his daughters, in an undated photo posted on al-Aboud’s personal Facebook account in June (Fatima al-Aboud/Facebook)
Abdo al-Dali, a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir’s media office, confirmed that al-Masri is one of 38 men detained due to their affiliation with the party. The group includes men who have been held since mid-2023, arrested during raids on their homes or in police interceptions involving gunfire, he said. One of them is the head of the party’s media office, , who was previously detained by the Assad regime in , the notorious Saidnaya Military Prison outside Damascus. Al-Dali stressed that the party’s members are "prisoners of opinion" who are "prohibited from hiring a lawyer, and have not appeared before an investigating judge." HTS prisons in Idlib "are not subject to human rights oversight, and medical and food services for detainees are extremely poor," he added.
The detainees were arrested under the rubric of a "sultani ruling" or "emiri arrest," a form of "arbitrary detention known by this name in Idlib," al-Dali said. "They were not charged with clear charges, but called for mobilizing the fronts against the Assad regime."
Arbitrary arrests and disappearances
Abd al-Qader Topal has not received any news of his son, Ahmed Topal, since December 12, 2016. Ahmed is "forcibly disappeared, while Assad’s criminals are free," Topal told Syria Direct, appealing to the Syrian authorities for any information about his son’s fate.
Ahmed was a commander in the Free Syrian Army’s 51st Brigade when he had a disagreement with a security commander from Jabhat al-Nusra (the predecessor to HTS) who demanded food baskets that Ahmed was planning to distribute in the town of Maarat al-Numan south of Idlib. He did not comply, and "disappeared" after finishing the distribution, said his father, who now supports his son’s three children. Topal knows two of his son’s friends in the Free Syrian Army who were arrested and detained by HTS under similar circumstances. One of them, Muhammad Abd al-Baset Khashan, also disappeared. The other, Ibrahim Khashan, died in prison. Like many relatives of Syrian detainees and disappeared persons, Topal fell victim to extortion while searching for any information about his son. When an individual asked for $5,000 in exchange for information, he mortgaged his house to raise the money, but to no avail. "I lost the money and didn’t learn anything about his fate," Topal told Syria Direct.
The only information he received came from "a detainee who was with him in the Shahin prison," in the central Idlib prison building, who said "my son was tortured and suffered from a stomach ailment."
In October 2018, HTS arrested media activist Jumaa Hamada and his uncle Muhammad—the head of the local council in Kafr Hamra village north of Aleppo—during a raid on the latter’s house in the village of Turmanin in the Idlib countryside, Omar Hamada, Jumaa’s father and Muhammad’s brother, told Syria Direct.
In the years since the two were arrested, Hamada has filed several legal complaints in Sarmada courts "to reveal their fate," but has not received any information. Two years ago, "an emir in HTS said that they were killed shortly after their arrest, without revealing the location of the burial."
The uncle and nephew were arrested in the wake of "clashes between the [Turkish-backed] National Liberation Front and HTS" in Kafr Hamra, Hamada added. He added that the two "are not affiliated with any military faction, and have nothing to do with the clashes."
Jumaa Hamada (left) takes a selfie during a demonstration in Kafr Hamra in the northern Aleppo countryside, one day before he was arrested by HTS and disappeared along with his uncle, 10/28/2018 (Jumaa Hamada/Facebook)
Three former detainees in HTS prisons who spoke to Syria Direct said they were accused of inciting against HTS and were only released after signing a pledge not to participate in new protests, under threat of harsher penalties. Hizb ut-Tahrir detainees, who refused to sign such a pledge, remained in detention. They said they were subjected to serious violations, including torture from the moment of arrest and detention in cramped solitary confinement or overcrowded dormitories, causing chronic diseases for some. None of them underwent real trials.
Widespread anti-HTS protests erupted in Idlib in early 2024, following the torture and killing of a member of the Jaysh al-Ahrar faction while in the faction’s custody. The demonstrators demanded an end to violations in HTS prisons, the release of detainees, local reforms and the resignation of al-Shara, who led HTS under his nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Jolani.
In recent years, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has identified at least 46 permanent detention centers affiliated with HTS in northwestern Syria, according to a 2022 report. At the time, it estimated that there were 2,327 forcibly disappeared persons held in these centers, most of whom had been subjected to some form of torture. It also found at least 116 temporary detention centers where investigations and interrogations were conducted.
With the fall of the Assad regime, and the absence of any real legal, administrative or military status for HTS—which was officially dissolved in January—"its detention centers are illegal and must be closed immediately and all detainees released," said Manam of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression. Any criminal cases should "be referred to the Public Prosecution, which alone has the authority to decide on detention," he added. Under the March 2025 constitution—an interim constitution governing Syria’s post-Assad political transition—the military and weapons are limited to the state, and no other party may establish "military or paramilitary formations" (Article 9). Those accused of crimes have the right to litigation and to defend themselves, and are presumed innocent until a final judicial ruling is issued (Article 17). Torture and arbitrary arrest are also prohibited (Article 18).
Paradoxes of civil peace
"The families of the detainees live a painful reality, with the release of Assad’s criminals, such as , who in turn are demanding the release of hundreds of those accused of war crimes," al-Dali said. "At the same time, prisoners of opinion remain in prisons."
"This distinction has left families demanding that the state treat their children the way it treated the former regime’s shabiha," he added. Activists have criticized the continued detention of dozens of people in Idlib for previously rejecting HTS policies, while those accused of crimes have been released in the name of preserving civil peace.
In a brief statement at a press conference held at the Ministry of Information in Damascus on June 10, Hassan Soufan, a member of the Civil Peace Committee, indicated that more detainees would be released soon in Idlib, without mentioning their backgrounds or alleged crimes. Syria Direct contacted the Syrian Ministry of Justice for an official comment regarding the detainees in HTS prisons, which form the backbone of the new Syrian administration, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
"Any lasting peace in Syria requires transitional justice that guarantees accountability and justice for victims and prevents impunity, while rejecting selective amnesties that reproduce injustice," Manam said. This includes "opening detention files transparently and conducting fair trials in accordance with international standards, as an essential step towards ending the conflict and building a safe future for all Syrians."
Syrian lawyer Zaid al-Azm, who resides in France, said that the detention of prisoners of opinion in Idlib for expressing their opinions peacefully—whether political, social or religious—constitutes a clear form of arbitrary detention as defined in international law, referring to Articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Syria is a party. Also, preventing detainees from hiring defense lawyers and detaining them without trial is a flagrant violation of the right to defense, a cornerstone of any fair legal system. This places legal and ethical responsibilities on the new transitional authorities, al-Azm told Syria Direct.
While the current Syrian authorities are focused on those detained by the former Assad regime, relatives of detainees still held in Idlib continue to call for the release of their loved ones.
Al-Aboud is among them, balancing caring for her five children and advocating for the freedom of her husband and other detainees. Another sit-in was organized in the city of al-Bab in the Aleppo countryside on June 26, as well as in the city of al-Safira in southern Aleppo. Her hope is that Damascus will respond, and that she will see her children reunited with their father.
This report was originally published in and translated into English by Matthew Nelson.
Source: Yalla News Syria
