Badr Al Din Habib, a father of six, was arrested at a checkpoint in the Ramouse neighbourhood of Aleppo on October 9, 2014. He was in a taxi on his way to the Hamdaniya neighbourhood when he was stopped at the checkpoint under the control of the military security services. The officers asked him to get out of the car and arrested him without showing a warrant. The arrest was witnessed by the taxi driver.

Habib was seen the next day by a former detainee at the military security services detention centre in the New Aleppo neighbourhood of Aleppo. He had visible signs of torture on his body.

On October 17, 2014, Habib’s family enquired about his fate and whereabouts at the military security services and Air Force Intelligence Directorate branches in Aleppo and Damascus, but to no avail.

In late June 2018, a member of the military security services unofficially informed Habib’s family that he had been held in Sednaya prison, north of Damascus, and later transferred to the military security services branch in the Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus on April 1, 2018 for investigation purposes. However, the officer informed his relatives that they would not be allowed to visit or contact him, and his family was unable to verify the veracity of this information.