Usra al-Hussein Released from Incommunicado Detention in Syria (UA 261/08)

Usra al-Hussein was released on July 18 after spending nearly a year in incommunicado detention without charge or trial. Her husband, Jehad Diab, has been held without charge or trial as an “enemy combatant” in the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since August 2002. Usra al-Hussein was arrested by State Security officials on July 31, 2008, from her home in al-‘Otayba after contacting an international organization regarding the detention conditions of her husband. Since her arrest, she was permitted no contact with the outside world, and her family was given no information by the Syrian authorities as to where she was being held or why she had been arrested. Amnesty International does not yet have information on her treatment during detention.