Young man tortured to death by Turkish-backed armed groups in northern Syria

North-Press Agency

 The young man Salih al-Shibli was tortured to death in a prison of the Turkish-backed armed opposition groups in the town of Tal Abyad (Gre-Spi) in the northern countryside of Raqqa, yesterday on Monday, after he was detained on February 11th, on the pretext of having dealt with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The Violations Documentation Center in Northern Syria (VDC-NSY), quoting local sources, said that militants belonging to Ali al-Sarraj, a commander in the Turkish-backed National Army, stormed the young man’s house in the Hawija village, southeast of Tal Abyad, and shot and wounded al-Shibli in his chest.

Turkish-backed militants kidnapped the young man and then demanded his family pay a ransom of 20 thousand dollars for his release, or he would be killed, according to what VDC-NSY quoted from its local source.

In a previous report released in early April, VDC-NSY revealed that 87 persons were tortured to death in prisons and detention centers of the Turkish-backed armed groups in northern Syria, and at least 6,201 people were detained, 789 of them were subjected to severe torture since March 2018.

The fate of about 3,051 detainees out of 6,201 in three areas in northern Syria, Afrin, Tal Abyad, and Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), is still unknown, according to Violations Documentation Center in Northern Syria.