The International Press Institute (IPI) today said it was deeply concerned for the well-being of three detained Syrian human-rights defenders, including journalist and IPI World Press Freedom Hero Mazen Darwish, who local activists say have been unaccounted for since early this month.

Darwish, the founding president of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), and two colleagues, Hussain Ghrer and Hani Zaitani, have not been seen since May 3, according to a statement issued by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OBS). The OBS is a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT).

The three men were scheduled to appear in court on May 13. However, the statement cited officials at Adra Prison as indicating on May 10 that “the three defenders were not within the premises of the prison, as they had been summoned for interrogation outside of the prison”.

OBS reported that several attempts to visit Darwish and his colleagues at the prison prior to the May 13 hearing had been “unsuccessful”. A new court date is said to have been scheduled for June 1.

“IPI is extremely troubled by this latest development in the ongoing illegal detention of Mazen Darwish, Hussain Ghrer and Hani Zaitani and we urge authorities to immediately account for the whereabouts of all three men,” IPI Executive Director Barbara Trionfi said.

“We further repeat our call on the Syrian government to release and drop all charges against Mr. Darwish and his colleagues, whose basic human rights have been grossly abrogated. This case is an extraordinary mockery of justice occurring directly in front of the world’s eyes.”

As IPI has previously reported, Darwish, Ghrer and Zaitani were arrested by Syrian authorities without charges in February 2012. In March 2014, they were charged with “publicising terrorist acts” under Art. 8 of the 2012 Anti-Terrorism Law. Since that time, Syria’s Anti-Terrorism Court has delayed a hearing into the case 23 times, according to the OBS statement as well as Yara Bader, current SCM president and Darwish’s wife.

Syrian authorities have also failed to extend an amnesty announced in June 2014 to Darwish and his colleagues, despite the fact that the amnesty decree expressly applied to Art. 8 of the Anti-Terrorism Law. The three men are also believed to have been subject to ill-treatment, and possibly torture.

On May 3, Darwish was honoured in absentia with the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize at a ceremony in Riga, Latvia. The prize jury cited Darwish’s decade-long work in Syria “at great person sacrifice, enduring a travel ban, harassment, as well as repeated detention and torture”.

In February, IPI named Darwish its 67th World Press Freedom Hero in honour of his tireless work in support of media freedom and journalists’ rights in Syria.