Rania al-Abbasi, her husband Abdulrahman Yasin and their six children, aged between 3 and 15, were arrested by the Syrian authorities in March 2013. They have been missing ever since, victims of enforced disappearance.
Rania al-Abbasi’s sister, Naila al-Abbasi, told Amnesty International:
“Rania played chess competitively and for many years represented Syria in international and regional competitions. She raised the profile of the game in Syria and was honored by Basel al-Assad [older brother of current President Bashar al-Assad].
“A dentist, she was very popular among her patients and colleagues because she is energetic, honest and very good at her job. Her clinic was successful but she made sure that she could provide free treatment to those who couldn’t pay.
“Despite being busy with work and the children, Rania is very social and she always made time for her relatives, her friends and her neighbors. We, as her family, know her to be kind, generous and always there to help others, not just her family but anyone else who needed her.
“Rania and the whole family had visas to leave the country whenever they want but when the uprising started, she did not want to leave. She thought she and her family were safe because they had not participated in any political activities or belonged to any opposition party. They did not go to any demonstrations. So she thought nothing would happen to them.”
On 9 March 2013, Syrian Military Intelligence officers came to Rania al-Abbasi’s home in the Damascus suburb of Mashroua Dummar and arrested her husband without giving any reason. They returned the following day and looted money, jewelry, the family cars, and the paperwork for their properties and Rania’s clinic. Two days later, they came back for Rania and her six children. Their whereabouts have remained unknown ever since. Despite requests from their relatives, the Syrian authorities have given no information about what has happened to them, where they are or why they were arrested.