Syrian pro-democracy campaigners see the hand of state security in the sudden disappearance of a prominent Kurdish cleric who recently called for regime change in the authoritarian state.
Machouk al-Khaznawi, who has used several sermons to denounce the rule of President Bashar Assad, has not been heard from since he left the Islamic Studies Centre in Damascus a week ago.
Only days earlier, he told The Globe and Mail in an interview that: "Either the regime will change, or the regime must go. . . . I couldn't have said this five years ago because the Americans weren't in Iraq five years ago. The reason I and others can speak out is because the Americans are trying to get rid of dictators and help the oppressed."
Syrian human-rights activist Anwar al-Bounni, a lawyer, said yesterday by telephone from Damascus that the cleric's family reported his disappearance to Syrian security officials, who denied any role in it.
"Many people, in fact, would have liked him to disappear, but I suppose nothing happens in Syria without [knowledge]of some security branch," Mr. al-Bounni said.
"The government is responsible about him, about his life, about how they treat him. And until now they don't tell us or anybody what happened to him."
In a statement, the Paris-based Arab Committee for Human Rights held Syrian authorities responsible for Mr. al-Khaznawi's safety.
Murad al-Khaznawi, the cleric's son, has told friends that Syrian security officials said they were treating the disappearance as a criminal matter and suggested that he was kidnapped by members of the Iraqi resistance operating in the country.
The son said that explanation is not plausible because such a group could not operate within Syria without the tacit approval of Damascus.
He said that the incident is more likely linked to his father's increased profile among Syrian Kurds and his push for equality rights for Kurds, who make up about 9 per cent of the country's largely Arab population.
There are about 1.5 million Kurds in Syria, of whom 160,000 are denied Syrian citizenship. Syria has a population of about 19 million.