On the evening of October 28, 2025, Dr. Hamza Shahin — a member of the Druze community and a former member of the Syrian Parliament — was abducted in front of his clinic in the village of Deir Ali in the Damascus countryside by four armed and masked men who took him to an unknown location. As a result of torture and ill-treatment during his captivity, he died several days later in the Daraa countryside, where his body was initially buried in the village of Al-Matlah in the Lajat area of Daraa countryside, before being later exhumed by security forces.
This incident comes amid a broader pattern of recurring kidnappings and violations targeting minorities in various regions of Syria following the takeover of power in the country by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
