Contact was lost with Hassan Samir Othman, a member of the Alawite sect, on the evening of Friday, 19 December 2025, in the city of Latakia in western Syria. His last known contact location was near al-Azhari Roundabout, while he was heading to meet one of his friends.
According to available information, Hassan received a call from his friend to recover a sum of money, and he accordingly headed to al-Azhari Roundabout in the city of Latakia to meet him. After that meeting, contact with Hassan was completely cut off, and no information about his whereabouts or fate has been received up to the time of preparing this report.
There is no information available about the party that may be responsible for the disappearance of Hassan Samir Othman, nor are the circumstances of what occurred after his arrival at the meeting location yet known. It is likely that the incident falls within a recurring pattern of abduction or enforced disappearance cases targeting civilians in the area.
This incident comes within a broader context marked by an increase in killings, abductions, and violations against civilians from the Alawite sect in various parts of Syria, including preceding bloody events such as the killing of civilians in the village of al-Saboura in the Hama countryside on 20 December 2025 as a result of a sectarian-motivated armed attack.
These incidents reflect a worrying escalation in the targeting of civilians, particularly those belonging to religious and sectarian minorities, amid the absence of official information regarding the identity of the perpetrators or the fate of the abducted, and the continued state of impunity in areas under the control of the provisional authority.
