Omar Aziz, 64, the peaceful activist, died on February 16 in Harasta military hospital, a relative told Human Rights Watch. A released detainee provided information about the possible second death of Ayham Ghazzoul, 26, a human rights activist in Military Intelligence branch 215 in Kafr Suseh, Damascus in November 2012. Security Forces had detained both activists in November.

“Aziz’s death, and Ghazzoul’s feared death are yet another reminder of the need to immediately lift the veil of secrecy over Syria’s prisons,” said Sarah Leah Whitson Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “How many more deaths in custody before the Security Council requires Syria to open up its detention centers?”

Human Rights Watch also expressed concern about the well-being of other activists, on the basis of evidence from fellow detainees and relatives, and the fact that in some cases they have been held by security forces incommunicado for months. Many of those being held are feared to have been subjected to torture.

They include Mazen Darwish, president of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), who was detained by the same Mezze branch of Air Force intelligence on February 16, 2012; Bassel Khartabil (also known as Bassel Safadi),a Syrian-Palestinian software engineer active in developing open source programs for accessible internet, detained by Military Intelligence on March 15, 2012; and Khalil Maatouk a prominent human rights lawyer abducted on October 12 while driving to his office, and believed to be in the custody of State Security in Kafr Suseh, Damascus.

A relative of Aziz told Human Rights Watch that on February 16 he was transported from ‘Adra Central Prison to the Harasta military hospital in the Damascus suburbs where he died. The cause of death was heart complications caused by high blood pressure, from which Aziz suffered before he was detained, and for which he was taking medication.

However, a witness who saw Aziz in ‘Adra, said that his physical condition had deteriorated significantly since Air Force Intelligence arrested him at his home on November 20. Air Force Intelligence held Aziz incommunicado at their facility in Mezze, Damascus until February 12, when they transferred him to ‘Adra.

The witness said that Aziz was incredibly thin, having lost more than 30 pounds, and that Aziz had said that while he was held in the Air Force Intelligence facility, he had suffered severe ill treatment, including being kept incommunicado in a 4-by-4-meter cell with 85 other people without adequate room to sleep, subjected to cold temperatures, fed poor quality and insufficient food, and told that his family was being detained with him. Aziz told the witness that he had not been physically tortured, and that he had been seen by a doctor and regularly given his blood pressure medication. Aziz’s relative told Human Rights Watch that the family learned he had died on February 16 from one of his co-detainees in ‘Adra. The detainee told them that Aziz was transported to the Harasta military hospital at 1:00 a.m. that morning. Hospital personnel told Aziz’s family that he died shortly after arrival. No representative of the Syrian government contacted Aziz’s family to inform them that he died in custody. Instead, relatives visited Harasta military hospital and searched for Aziz before confirming that he was dead.

Aziz, a 64-year-old husband and father of three, moved back to Syria in 2011 from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he was working for a computer company. A relative told Human Rights Watch that after the uprising began, in March 2011, Aziz began working with an informal group of activists to deliver humanitarian assistance to the Damascus suburbs. He was detained at his home on November 20 by armed Air Force Intelligence agents wearing civilian clothing.

A recently released inmate told Ghazzoul’s family that he saw him die in the Military Intelligence branch 215 facility in Kafr Suseh, Damascus, on November 9. The inmate said the death was from wounds sustained on November 5, when Ghazzoul was detained and beaten by members of the National Students Union (NSU), a pro-government student body, and two shabiha who were transporting him to the Military Intelligence detention facility. Despite repeated requests for information from his family, the Syrian government failed to provide any information about Ghazzoul’s well-being or whereabouts.

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly documented widespread violations by Syrian government security forces and officials, including enforced disappearances, use of torture, and arbitrary and incommunicado detentions of, among others, peaceful protesters, activists, humanitarian assistance providers, and doctors. In particular, Human Rights Watch documented widespread ill-treatment and torture at the Air Force Intelligence facility in Mezze headed by Major General Jamil Hassan and the director of its investigative branch, Brig. Gen. Abdul Salam Fajr Mahmoud and in Military Intelligence branch 215 headed by Brig. Gen. Sha’afiq.

The government should provide immediate and unhindered access for recognized international detention monitors to all detention facilities, official and unofficial, without prior notification, Human Rights Watch said. These monitors include the office of the Joint Special Representative of the UN and the League of Arab States, Lakhdar Brahimi and the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Syria. The Joint Special Representative’s Office and the COI should deploy professional human rights monitors who are trained to organize random and regular visits to all places of detention, including suspected secret detention centers. These experts should have the capabilities and resources to identify people who are arbitrarily detained, and those who may be suffering from ill-treatment, protect interviewees from retaliation, and ensure the confidentiality and safekeeping of interviews.

“A constellation of abuse surrounds each incident of arbitrary detention in Syria, from the government’s unwillingness to even acknowledge who is in their custody, to widespread torture and chilling reports of deaths in detention.” Whitson said. “The international community, and first and foremost Syria’s allies, needs to bring pressure to bear on the government to stop these rampant abuses.”

“In most detention facilities visited by the Working Group, the conditions fall far below international human rights standards, including in terms of severe overcrowding,” stressed one of the members of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Vladimir Tochilovsky.

The group, which just finished an 11-day visit to the Mediterranean country, found pre-trial and convicted detainees in the same cell, as well as irregular migrants mixed in with criminal detainees in violation of national and international standards.

“Detainees are being held for months in police holding cells and border guard stations, although these facilities were designed for a maximum stay of 24 hours,” Tochilovsky said. “This situation also affects the rights of pre-trial detainees to properly prepare their judicial defence as there are no adequate facilities for the communication of the detainees with their defence lawyers.”

During the visit, the working group interviewed detainees and found that few of them were aware of their right to legal assistance and, in numerous instances, did not enjoy this right without payment.

They also stressed that the lack of judicial review as well as the excessive length of detention can be considered an arbitrary deprivation of their liberty. “The imprisonment of a migrant or an asylum-seeker for up to 18 months, in conditions that are sometimes found to be even worse than in the regular prisons, could be considered as a punishment imposed on a person who has not committed any crime,” said Tochilovsky.

The group met with Greek authorities from the executive, legislative and judicial branches as well as with legal representatives, civil society organizations and international organizations. It also visited various detention centres in Athens, the Aegean island of Samos, Alexandroupolis, Orestiada, Komotini, Soufli and Thessaloniki.

On a positive note, Tochilovsky welcomed the adoption of legislative reforms on this issue and commended the Government for the creation of the new Asylum Service Department to establish the First Reception Service responsible for screening procedures. The new department will be independent from the police and under the control of civilian and specialized personnel.

Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

“It is time for the Bahraini authorities to comply with the rights to peaceful assembly and expression and immediately release those arbitrarily detained for exercising their legitimate freedoms,” the experts said in a news release issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

They also called for the immediate release of human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, who was convicted on three charges of illegal assembly related to his participation in peaceful gatherings in favour of fundamental freedoms and democracy, including a peaceful protest to denounce the detention of fellow defender Abdulhadi Al Khawaja. Rajab was recently sentenced to three years imprisonment.

Since February, there have been clashes in Bahrain between security forces and demonstrators, a year after widespread civil protests first emerged in the Gulf country.

“The sentencing of Nabeel Rajab represents yet another blatant attempt by the Government of Bahrain to silence those legitimately working to promote basic human rights,” said the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya.

“The Bahraini Government must immediately cease its campaign of persecution of human rights defenders in the country,” she added.

The Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, stressed that “the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly should not be subject to prior authorization from the authorities.”

He noted that the criminalization of people participating in peaceful assemblies for the sole reason that they did not seek the approval of the authorities to hold such assemblies contradicts international human rights law.

Rajab is also currently serving three months imprisonment for alleged libel through a social networking site. After a series of postponements, a decision by Bahrain’s Higher Appeal Court on that sentence is reportedly due to be announced today.

“The continuing repression of free speech in Bahrain runs counter to international law and standards that individuals will not be prosecuted for peaceful political speech,” said the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue.

He added, “The authorities must take all measures to guarantee the free expression of all individuals in Bahrain, whether through social media or otherwise.”

Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.