Syria: Arrest of the Alawite community’s sheikh in the Al-Ghab Plain, and demands to reveal his fate

Forces affiliated with the Syrian Transitional Government arrested, on Thursday evening, Issa Al-Kheir, the sheikh of the Alawite community in the Al-Ghab Plain in Hama countryside, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, with no official clarification issued regarding the reasons for the arrest.

The Observatory stated that the arrest took place in front of the sheikh’s home in the city of Sahlab in Hama countryside, without any charges being brought or a judicial warrant presented. It added that he was transferred after interrogation to a security center known as “Al-Nahl” in the Al-Suqaylabiyah area, before all contact with him was completely lost.

His family and local residents issued pleas calling for the disclosure of his place of detention and allowing communication with him, demanding his release.

The Observatory indicated that the incident comes in the context of what it described as the continuation of arrests carried out “without legal justification,” amid a state of anxiety experienced by residents in the countryside of Hama and Homs.