On the morning of Monday, 15 December 2025, while Shadi Tahtah, a member of the Druze community, was passing through a General Security checkpoint affiliated with the interim authority “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham” in the al-Matouna area in the countryside of Suwayda in southern Syria, he was stopped and detained. According to the available information, he was stopped due to the presence of a photo of the leader of the Druze community, Hikmat al-Hijri, on the screen of his mobile phone, after which he was arbitrarily arrested and forced to unlock his personal phone.
Since the moment of his arrest, the fate of Shadi Tahtah remains unknown, and the party that detained him has not announced his whereabouts or his legal status.
A few hours after Shadi Tahtah’s detention, private photos and video clips stored on his personal phone began to spread through pages on social media sites loyal to the authority. The leaked materials included personal and private photos of him and of members of his family and relatives, including photos of girls, in violation of privacy and human dignity.
According to consistent information, these materials were extracted from his phone during his detention, then deliberately leaked and published, accompanied by phrases of defamation, blackmail, and incitement. Some of those pages also focused on publishing clips showing the victim carrying a weapon.
This incident comes within a tense security context in Suwayda Governorate, following recent attacks carried out by forces of the interim authority and armed groups affiliated with it, which has prompted a large number of the governorate’s residents to take up arms in defense of themselves and their areas, a reality from which this case cannot be separated.
It is noted that the targeting of Shadi Tahtah was accompanied by hate speech and public accusations of treason, with some posts reaching direct incitement to kill him, which heightens fears for his physical and psychological safety.
Shadi Tahtah’s family demanded the immediate disclosure of his fate, holding the party that carried out the arrest fully responsible for his safety, and calling for clarification of the reasons for his detention and for his immediate release.
In this context, al-Karama Square in the city of Suwayda witnessed, on 20 December 2025, a solidarity stand demanding the immediate release of Shadi Tahtah and of all detainees and forcibly disappeared persons.
