
Qozhaya Shehwan
First Name:
Qozhaya
Last Name:
Shehwan
Gender:
Male
Date of Birth:
4/12/1951
Marital Status:
Married
Have Children:
Yes
Number of Children:
4
Occupation:
Employee at Sol'ati chemicals
Date of Disappearance:
22/7/1980
Age at the time of Disappearance:
29
Location of the Disappearance:
The company of Sol'ati chemicals, Lebanon
Last Seen Date:
4/12/1980
Last Seen Location:
Sidnaya prison, Syria
Description of the missing person
Qozhayya, who was twenty-eight years old when he went missing, was married and had four children. He liked walking on the beach and he was very close with his kids, whom he helped raise well alongside his wife. He worked at a chemical company. He aspired to raise a large family and to have more than ten children, and before his disappearance he had bought a piece of land and was building a new home.
Circumstances of the Disappearance
Syrian intelligence was frequently in contact with Qozhayya in order to get sandbags from his company. One time, he was called to meet with some Syrian intelligence officers at the entrance to his company. His uncle, who was suspicious of the circumstances, saw Qozhayya as he was on his way to meet the intelligence officers and told him that he could help him get away if he wanted to, but Qozhayya didn’t accept this offer. After the family found out that Qozhayya had been abducted by Syrian intelligence, they began looking for him and after a number of months Qozhayya’s wife got permission to visit him in a Syrian prison. They met and spoke for fifteen minutes, and she gave him two packs of cigarettes and fifty Syrian liras. As she was leaving, he told her that she wouldn’t be able to visit him again without a travel permit. He also explained to her the reason that he was in the prison, and he said that “God will take care of whoever caused this to happen.” Qozhayya’s wife attempted to visit him every fifteen days but after that she was forbidden from seeing him again.