Military police return detained Afrin women to armed opposition prison in Syria – Human rights source

AFRIN, Syria (North Press) – The women held by al-Hamzat Division who were handed over to the military police were returned to al-Hamzat Division to be imprisoned there, a human rights source familiar with the situation in northern Syria’s Afrin said.

Ibrahim Sheikho, spokesman for the Human Rights Organization in Afrin Syria, told North Press that the military police of the armed groups have returned the detainees in Afrin to al-Hamzat Division, and they are now inside its prison in the village of Basouta.

Sheikho indicated that when the women’s relatives visited them in prison, members of the Division demanded a ransom ranging between 200,000 and 500,000 Syrian pounds in exchange for the release of each of them.

The women appeared for the first time after being kidnapped by al-Hamzat in a leaked video on social media, after the opposition’s armed families attacked the al-Hamzat Division headquarters during confrontations between the armed groups, which killed a number of civilians and sparked anger among the population.

In late May, the Afrin region witnessed a "massive demonstration" of armed groups’ families from the Ghouta area of Damascus countryside, calling for the military headquarters of the Turkish-backed armed groups to be removed from residential neighborhoods, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In a statement following the incident, the Autonomous Administration held the Turkish government responsible for what happened to these women, and it appealed to all human rights organizations and international decision makers to conduct an international investigation and hold those responsible for these violations accountable.

 A report published by the Violations Documentation Center in northern Syria said that the fate of 3,500 civilians arrested in Afrin is still unknown, including 181 women, 98 of whom were killed under torture, and 80 cases were documented.