On November 3, 2018, the Military Security Services in the city of Hama arrested a woman and her 4-month-old newborn daughter, who has a cardiac disorder, based on a malicious report. The infant was released in return for a large sum of money, while the mother was transferred to several security branches, to finally end up in the Adra Central Prison/Damascus, according to testimonies obtained by Syrians for Truth and Justice/STJ.
On the arrest’s day, the detained woman, 28-year-old, took her infant for a treatment session in Salah ad-Din neighborhood, central Hama, arranged by the doctor supervising her case, for the infant is suffering from a congenital ventricular septal defect. That is where she was arrested with her infant and led to the Military Security headquarters, located on the Hama-Homs roadway.
Under a pseudonym, Moath, the detained woman’s husband who is from and based in the city of Idlib, informed STJ of the incident’s details. He said:
“On that day, I tried hard to call my wife, but alas, her phone was out of service and disconnected on all social networking sites. In time, I started to worry, especially that my child was born with a cardiac disorder.”
On October 25, 2018, the detained woman traveled from the city of Idlib to the city of Hama, where her family resides, seeking a treatment for her infant, given the lack of treatment in Idlib province and the family’s inability at taking her to Turkey, for her case is not urgent, and they have had to wait for their turn. The family, thus, decided not to put the infant to risk by waiting and took her, accompanied by her mother, to the city of Hama, where she will get the treatment and live in the house of her mother’s family.
Moath added:
“I asked my wife’s family to search for my wife and the baby at hospitals. I was scared that the infant’s case has worsened and that her mother might have taken her to one of the city’s hospitals. After this, I started contemplating that she might have been kidnapped. But I never thought of her being arrested, for my wife has not been involved in any anti-regime activity. She is a housewife, taking care of her family only. However, after the news about her going missing spread, a person, who has connections with the security branches in Hama, informed my wife’s family that she was detained at the Military Security Branch.”
The mother, along with her infant, was held in the Military Security Branch for two days. And, only after a mediator contacted the branch and the family paid a sum of 450,000 Syrian pounds, the branch approved to release the infant and deliver her to one of her mother’s sisters. STJ’s field researcher met the sister, who was delivered the infant on November 5, 2018. She recounted the conditions, under which she received the baby:
“At 11 pm sharp, an element from the Military Security Branch called me. He asked me to refer to the branch to take my niece. I went there accompanied by my older brother. We waited at the branch’s external door until an element appeared and opened the door while carrying a black bag, in which he placed the infant. He gave me the baby and asked me to sign that I received her. I did. Scared, we raced to the car. The baby was in a tragic condition; her body was cold and wrapped in a black bag. They used worn-out clothes as diapers. We immediately took her to the hospital to be treated urgently.”
The released infant on treatment in one of Hama city’s hospitals.
Photo credit: STJ.
The already sick infant spent about a week in one of Hama city’s hospitals, where she was put on oxygen and her prescribed medications. Her maternal aunt looked after her in the absence of her mother, detained in the Military Security Branch. The family kept trying to find the causes for the arrest, which later on appeared to be a malicious report, filed against the mother by one of the regime’s intelligence agents in the neighborhood where the mother and her family live. The family sought to release the mother resorting to every possible mean, but the Military Security Branch refused and transferred her to the Military Court in the city of Hama on November 13, 2018, which, in turn, issued a decision of transferring the mother detainee to the Terrorism Court/Damascus.
Moath informed STJ of the news he received about his wife:
“When the Military Courts/Hama released my wife, she was transferred to the Terrorism Court/Damascus. She was placed in the Adra Central Prison. Today, we are waiting in torment, for, on the one hand, there is my wife, the destiny of whom we do not know; on the other, there is my child, who is in a dire need for her mother’s care to heal. I never thought that the treatment would cost me this severe punishment. All we wanted was the baby’s recovery, but we ended up stuck between security branches and courts.”