Syrian student Suhaib al-Ammar was released without charge on 10 January 2012, following his arrest by Syrian Air Force Intelligence officials on 18 November 2011.
On 18 November, 22-year-old Suhaib al-Ammar was travelling from Damascus, the Syrian capital, to the nearby town of Daraya to visit his sister and niece when he was arrested. He was taken to his sister’s apartment, in what is believed to have been an attempt to extract information from his sister about her husband, a pro-reform activist.
According to a contact in Syria, Suhaib al-Ammar was held incommunicado at a military airport until the day of his release, when he was taken before a judge where he faced accusations of insulting the Syrian president and attending illegal demonstrations. He denied these accusations and the judge decided to release him without charge.
Amnesty International’s source stated that Suhaib al-Ammar said he was subjected to torture or other ill-treatment during his interrogation and that he could hear other detainees being tortured or otherwise ill-treated as well. He was reportedly held in poor conditions in an overcrowded room with more than 120 other prisoners.