Bring This Mother Back to her Children:

On 19 May 2011, civilian and military clad personnel from a Syrian Air Force patrol stormed Anna’noo’ Photography Center, located on Ibn Seena Road in the city of Jableh in Lattakia Province.  Four medium-sized men from the patrol dragged away Mrs. Majida Mahmoud who had been working at the center for two years.  She was thrown into their vehicle and taken to an undisclosed location.  There were no female officers accompanying the patrol.  This was the last anybody saw Mrs. Mahmoud before her disappearance, as reported by eyewitness, Mr. (Q. N.).

Majida Adnan Mahmoud was born in the city of Jableh on 14 November 1977.  She resided in Al-Fayd neighborhood and has two children from a previous marriage, the children (Ali ,a 12 year old boy and Nour, a 10 year old girl) currently live with her mother, Safa.

The Syrian regime has forbidden any communication with the Mrs. Mahmoud.  She was kidnapped more than a month ago, and even the appointment of a lawyer, to handle her case and ensure her rights are maintained, has been denied to her.  Further, the regime has also not stated the nature of Mrs. Mahmoud’s charge that lead to her detention.

Nonetheless, female ex-detainees have stated that they bumped into Mrs. Mahmoud in holding cells or interrogation halls and have confirmed she had was arrested for communicating with her relative, Abdulhadi Mahmoud.  He is one of the most wanted men in Jableh city for charges of igniting the revolution and being one of its central leaders and activists.  Additionally, earlier this year the Syrian Aerial Intelligence arrested and detained her brother, Adnan Mahmoud for two months.  Upon his release he exhibited signs of severe and prolonged torture.

Mariam, Majida Mahmoud’s nickname, was transferred to Lattakia after her forced disappearance and later to the capital Damascus, according to the account of eyewitness (S. S.) who met her at the capital prison.  No one in Mariam’s family has been allowed to see her at this point.

Damascus Center for Human Rights and the Syrian Network for Human Rights call on international bodies and organizations to mobilize and press the Syrian regime for the protection of Mrs. Majida and the ensuring of her safe return to her children.  DCHR and SNHR call on these organizations to press for the human rights’ organizations getting access to Mrs. Majida so she can be represented and so the realities of female detainees across Syrian prisons in the Arab world be highlighted for all the world to see.