Ms. Yara Salman, who belongs to the Alawite sect, was released today, 14 December 2025, after a period of abduction and arbitrary detention that had lasted since late October 2025. The release followed her abduction on 30 October 2025 and her subsequent arbitrary detention since 22 November 2025 by the forces of the interim authority represented by “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham,” after she sent a distress call to her family from the place of her abduction in the countryside of the city of Idlib in northern Syria.
Yara Salman is a married woman and the mother of a five-year-old girl, and she belongs to the Alawite sect. She was abducted in broad daylight near al-Farous Garage in the city of Latakia in western Syria, which led to a complete loss of contact with her from the date of the abduction. Her mother appeared in a video recording in which she demanded disclosure of her daughter’s fate.
On 22 November 2025, Ms. Yara managed to send a distress request, prompting security bodies in Qourqania to dispatch a patrol that arrested the kidnapper and took him, along with the victim, to the Criminal Investigation Branch in the city of Harim. Despite the arrest of the kidnapper, the victim herself was simultaneously detained and deprived of her right to defense and to the assistance of a lawyer, as the appointment of a lawyer was refused on the pretext that the investigation was ongoing until the case would be referred to the prosecution, according to what was published by the Syrian Feminist Lobby in a statement.
Available information indicates that the victim’s parents immediately went to the Harim police station to receive their daughter, where they were informed that the procedures were “under completion” and that her release would take place within two days. However, the family received no further information for nearly ten days. On 3 December 2025, the family was informed that Yara had been transferred to Sarmada Police Station 77, without clarification of the reasons for the transfer or her legal status.
The Syrian Feminist Lobby expressed deep concern over the arbitrary arrest of Ms. Yara Salman, pointing to her disappearance under threat to the safety of members of her family on 30 October 2025. Women’s rights defenders in the Lobby’s Monitoring and Documentation Unit reported that they had communicated with local and central official authorities without success, amid a continued absence of legal transparency and insistence on a narrative claiming that the victim “went of her own will,” a narrative with serious social and legal repercussions that turns the victim into an accused and contributes to exonerating the kidnapper.
The Lobby considered the incident to constitute a grave violation of human rights, including the prohibition of arbitrary detention and secret detention, the guarantee of the right to liberty and security, the right to know the truth, and the enjoyment of fair trial guarantees, in addition to violating Syrian law, which requires that a detainee be referred to the public prosecution within 48 hours.
The abduction and detention of Ms. Yara Salman occur within a general context marked by the recurrence of abductions and violations targeting minorities in several areas of Syria, under the control of “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham” over authority in those areas. Her release on 14 December 2025 reflects the end of a phase of arbitrary detention from which many abducted women from the Alawite sect continue to suffer.
