Syrian families’ ‘unbearable’ wait to know fate of detainee relatives

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

“They took Rania with her kids and since that day we don’t know anything about them,” Naila said.

The family have only received one piece of information about their detainment, which came shortly after the arrest. They believe the family was held at a prison in Damascus, known as the Palestine branch, which was operated by Syrian intelligence.

A female inmate who was released told the family in 2013 that she heard the voices of children in the prison, two weeks after the arrest.

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

“We are watching the news and seeing people released from the prisons and looking at the videos to see if we can see them,” Naila said.

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

“We were waiting for this day for 13 years,” she added. “But our wounds are still fresh now as if it happened yesterday.”