The “unbearable” wait of Syrian families to find out the fate of the relatives of those detained

Families of Syrian detainees have been searching for their missing loved ones since thousands of prisoners were freed following the fall of the Assad regime on Sunday.

The family of a Syrian dentist who was arrested along with her six children told the BBC they are still hoping to find them.

Meanwhile, the daughter of a US-based psychotherapist who was kidnapped in 2017 and believed dead says she has been heartened by videos of people being declared dead and found alive.

As rebel forces swept through the country in recent weeks, they released thousands of political prisoners held in government jails, including the famous Saydnaya prison nearby the capital, Damascus.

But with torture and executions common in these places under Bashar al-Assad’s rule, many are still waiting to see if their relatives are among those freed.

Rania Al-Abassi was arrested at her home in Damascus in March 2013 by Syrian military intelligence agents. Her children, aged between two and 14, were taken to prison with her.

Her husband, Abdul Rahman Yasin, was arrested the day before.

Rania’s sister Naila Al-Abassi, a doctor living in Saudi Arabia, told the BBC that “we cannot accept that Rania has been murdered.”

“Since the fall of the regime, we really hope to be able to see Rania and her children again. Especially, we want to see her six children.”

At the time of their arrest, Abassi’s children (Dima, Entisar, Najah, Alaa, Ahmed and Layan) were 14, 13, 11, eight, six and two years old respectively.

“They took Rania with her children and since that day we haven’t heard from them,” Naila said.

The family has only received one information about his arrest, which occurred shortly after the arrest. They believe the family was held in a prison in Damascus, known as the Palestine branch, operated by Syrian intelligence.

One inmate who was released told family in 2013 that she heard children’s voices in prison two weeks after her arrest.

Now that the prisoners have been released, relatives on the ground have visited the prisons to try to find them.

“We’re watching the news and seeing people being released from prisons and watching the videos to see if we can see them,” Naila said.

“But the prisons have opened and we haven’t seen Rania yet. It’s unbearable.”

“We’ve been waiting for this day for 13 years,” he added. “But our wounds are still fresh as if it happened yesterday.”

Majd Kamalmaz, a psychotherapist from Texas, disappeared in Syria in 2017. His daughter, Maryam, told the BBC she is still trying to find out what happened to him.

Kamalmaz had traveled to Damascus to visit an elderly relative.

On the second day of his trip, Kamalmaz, who was born in Syria but grew up and lived in the United States, was detained at a Syrian government checkpoint in Damascus and has not been seen or heard from since that day.

Earlier this year, U.S. intelligence officials told his family they had credible classified information that he had died in prison.

But Maryam Kamalmaz refuses to give up on the idea that her father is still alive.

“The FBI told us he was dead, but they didn’t have any body or any concrete information,” he said.

“We’re seeing stories of people who were declared dead and given death certificates and then it turned out they were alive.

“This renews our hope that we will find him alive. But if we don’t, we at least want to find his remains and have some kind of closure.”

Maryam added: “We have people inside Syria going to hospitals with high hopes, as well as to Saydnaya prison.

“I keep looking at the photographs and videos of people leaving Saydnaya prison and I think maybe I will see him there.”

Maryam said she doesn’t know why her father was kidnapped. His family believes the Assad family may have retained him as influence because he was American.