Houssam Youssef is a Syrian humanitarian activist and human right defender who was 21 years old when he was arrested on 24 September 2012 by General Intelligence agents at a checkpoint in Al-Muhajireen District, Damascus, and forcibly disappeared. His family later received confirmation that he had been held at Branch 41 (Al-Jeba) and then at the Al-Khateeb detention centre, before other detainees reported seeing him in April 2013 at the Beginners Training Centre near Damascus airport, under the control of Air Force Intelligence, where he was allegedly subjected to torture. Reports from the Gulf Centre for Human Rights indicate that he was held in custody with visible marks of torture and only released from interrogation cells once those marks had healed, raising serious concern about his welfare.