BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Almost a year after the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, the fate of the tens of thousands of people who were arbitrarily arrested or forcibly disappeared since the civil war began in 2011 remains unknown.
For their families, it is a deep, unhealed wound -- a continuing tragedy that leaves them with little hope of learning what truly happened, let alone whether they will ever find their loved ones, dead or alive.
This is the case for Lina Salameh and her only son, Hicham, who would have turned 32 this year. He vanished without a trace after being arrested at a checkpoint in a Damascus southern suburb in 2015.
When the peaceful anti-regime protests broke out and soon escalated into a bloody civil war, the Salameh family decided to seek refuge in neighboring Lebanon. Two years later, Hicham was forced to return to Syria to renew his travel documents.
He was stopped at the Syrian border crossing, prevented from returning to Lebanon and instructed to go back to Damascus to have his case reviewed at a Military Intelligence branch.
