Since an American therapist from Texas disappeared whereas visiting Syria in 2017, his household has navigated years of milestones in uncertainty: his forty first wedding ceremony anniversary, the births of 4 grandchildren, his spouse’s most cancers analysis.
Earlier this month, at a lodge in Washington, nationwide safety officers instructed the household that extremely credible, categorized data indicated the therapist, Majd Kamalmaz, had died in captivity, held in one of many world’s most infamous jail programs.
Mr. Kamalmaz’s kin intend to grieve quickly, lastly, at a mosque and on the household’s dwelling in Grand Prairie, Texas. That they had hoped for a distinct final result, however now that they’ve accepted the information, his daughters mentioned they’d struggle to carry Syria accountable for his or her father’s detainment and dying. The household plans to sue the Syrian authorities for damages and to hunt justice for others nonetheless in detention.
“They actually kidnapped him and disappeared him,” mentioned Mr. Kamalmaz’s older daughter, Ula Kamalmaz. “We’ve heard nothing from them. That’s unacceptable.”
Mr. Kamalmaz is one in all a number of People who’ve disappeared in Syria. Austin Tice, a contract journalist masking the nation’s civil conflict, was kidnapped exterior Damascus in 2012. Layla Shweikani, 26, an American support employee, was arrested, accused of terrorism and executed. The Justice Division is investigating her 2016 dying as a conflict crime carried out by Syrian intelligence officers.
Affirmation of Mr. Kamalmaz’s dying, which has not beforehand been reported, underscores the brutal detainment and torture in secret prisons in Syria which have flourished beneath President Bashar al-Assad. Syria denies that it makes use of torture and different abuses to silence dissent.
In Syria, residents and foreigners vanish with no clarification. The federal government refuses to say whether or not detainees are alive or lifeless, and it makes use of them as tacit leverage in negotiations with the West. When U.S. officers traveled to Syria in 2020 to debate the doable launch of hostages, together with Mr. Kamalmaz, he had possible already died, years earlier. Households are left in limbo, enduring a crushing cycle of hope and despair that may final years.
The Kamalmaz case exhibits how troublesome it’s for households and different nations to carry Mr. al-Assad accountable. Many of the world shunned Syria in 2013, after it was accused of utilizing chemical weapons by itself residents. However it has edged again onto the world stage, strengthening its ties with Iran, China and Russia. Earlier than the conflict in Gaza, Arab states have been reopening traces of communication with Syria.
“Pursuing accountability for Majd is symbolic and a measure of justice” for these detainees who’ve perished or stay in Syria’s dungeons, mentioned Mouaz Moustafa, the manager director of the Syrian Emergency Job Power, an advocacy group.
Mr. Kamalmaz, then 59, was operating a nonprofit in Lebanon serving to refugees take care of trauma when he drove to Syria in mid-February 2017 to go to a relative who had most cancers. As soon as in Damascus, he known as his spouse to inform her that he had arrived safely. The household by no means heard from him once more. As within the case of Mr. Tice, Syria by no means acknowledged holding Mr. Kamalmaz, and there was little details about his whereabouts.
Syria is “a really darkish black field,” mentioned Mr. Kamalmaz’s different daughter, Maryam.
However in January 2020, F.B.I. brokers visited the household’s dwelling in Texas. The U.S. authorities had data that Mr. Kamalmaz had suffered a coronary heart failure in Syria and died, they mentioned.
That summer time, family members traveled to Washington, the place F.B.I. brokers confirmed them a doc, written in Arabic, that indicated Mr. Kamalmaz had been taken to the hospital with coronary heart failure however that docs had did not revive him. It was dated June 2017.
“The date on that doc simply blew our thoughts,” Maryam Kamalmaz mentioned. Her father had been in good well being, making his dying solely 4 months after being detained seem extra unbelievable. “We questioned that paper due to the date. It didn’t make any sense.”
She added, “How may he endure from a coronary heart assault and die until they did one thing to him?”
The household additionally sought the assistance of the Czech ambassador on the time, who usually acted as an middleman since the USA reduce off formal diplomatic ties with Syria.
Mr. Moustafa mentioned he and his analysis staff strongly suspect that Mr. Kamalmaz was imprisoned, no less than for a few of his time in Syria, at a facility on the Mezze air base in Damascus, which is understood for its harsh situations and brutal torture. The complicated was then managed by Jamil Hassan, the chief of the Air Power Intelligence Directorate.
The US has imposed sanctions on Mr. Hassan, and the Justice Division is investigating him as a part of its inquiry into the dying of Ms. Shweikani, the help employee. The German authorities have additionally sought his arrest.
Years handed with no extra insights into what occurred to Mr. Kamalmaz. His forty first anniversary got here and went in October. His household, together with his 4 kids, stored ready.
Then finality got here in early Might at a Marriott Courtyard in Washington, on the assembly with U.S. officers, together with F.B.I. brokers. Eight officers affirmed the delicate data that led the federal government to its conclusion. Maryam Kamalmaz declined to specify what the officers had offered her, however she mentioned, “it was convincing after listening to what number of ranges of investigation it went by way of.”
She pressed every official. After greater than two hours, her doubts had dissipated. “There isn’t a extra hope,” she mentioned.
