Syrians missing, dying from torture in militant-run prisons

Syrians missing, dying from torture in militant-run prisons
1 / 3
Ahmad Al-Hakim prays as he sits by the tomb of his brother Abdul Qader, who was reportedly killed in torture while in captivity by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), in the village of Harbanush in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province on Mar. 8, 2024. (AFP)
Syrians missing, dying from torture in militant-run prisons
2 / 3
Amina Al-Hamam, 70, whose son Ghazwan Hassun was detained by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) in 2019, kisses her grandson as they sit at the entrance of their tent at a camp for those displaced by conflict in Idlib close to the Turkish border on Mar. 12, 2024. (AFP)
Syrians missing, dying from torture in militant-run prisons
3 / 3
Noha Al-Atrash, the wife of Syrian detainee Ahmed Abbas Majlouba who has been held captive by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), poses with her children during a demonstration condemning torture in HTS prisons and demanding the release of prisoners held by the group, in Idlib on Mar. 1, 2024. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 27 March 2024
Follow

Syrians missing, dying from torture in militant-run prisons

Syrians missing, dying from torture in militant-run prisons
  • “We protested and rose up against the Assad regime in order to be rid of injustice,” said Hakim, 30, referring to Syrian President Bashar Assad
  • Accusations of torture and other rights violations have increased since last year when HTS launched a crackdown on suspected “agents” for Damascus or foreign governments

HARBANUSH, Syria: Ahmed Al-Hakim’s 27-year-old brother was tortured to death in prison in Syria’s militant-run northwest, sparking rare protests amid accusations from residents and activists of rights violations in the opposition bastion.
“We protested and rose up against the Assad regime in order to be rid of injustice,” said Hakim, 30, referring to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Now “we find ourselves ruled with the same methods,” he told AFP, crouched near his brother Abdel-Kader’s grave, flowers and plants placed in the freshly turned soil.
Syria’s 13-year-old conflict, sparked by Assad’s brutal repression of anti-government protests, has drawn in foreign armies and militants and killed more than 500,000 people.
Around half of Idlib province and parts of neighboring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces are controlled by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), an alliance of Islamist factions led by Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate.
Accusations of torture and other rights violations have increased since last year when HTS launched a crackdown on suspected “agents” for Damascus or foreign governments.
Security forces from the Islamist group have detained hundreds of civilians, fighters and even prominent HTS members, providing no information to families, said residents and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
Abdel-Kader’s death triggered rare protests in Idlib province — home to some three million people, many displaced from government-held areas — in recent weeks and calls for the release of detainees, according to the Britain-based Observatory.
The war monitor said demonstrations are taking place daily in towns and villages, most recently on Sunday evening, when protesters chanted slogans against HTS leader Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani.
Jolani has said the protesters’ demands were “mostly justified,” and announced changes including the restructuring of the security force running the prisons.
HTS’s media office told AFP the group was “seriously examining” the protesters’ demands and would “tighten security bodies’ work (and) improve prison infrastructure... to deal with any dysfunction.”
Hakim, an accountant originally from Aleppo province, said his brother participated in anti-government protests before becoming a fighter and was part of the small HTS-aligned Jaish Al-Ahrar group.
He said the faction told Abdel-Kader to report to HTS, considered a terrorist organization by several Western countries, on suspicions of collaborating with the government.
Abdel-Kader handed himself in on March 16 last year “on the understanding that he would be out... in a week at most,” Hakim said.
After detaining him for several months and then saying he was “in good health,” HTS stonewalled the family’s requests for information, according to Hakim.
Months later, a factional contact and a former fighter told the family Abdel-Kader had died due to torture.
Jaish Al-Ahrar only notified them formally on February 22 that Abdel-Kader was dead.
The family found his grave was “new but the date of death written on it was around 20 days after his arrest,” a distraught Hakim said.
Former detainees told Hakim his brother was “beaten with piping until he lost consciousness, and tied up by his hands for days without food or water.”
Abdel-Kader denied any wrongdoing “so they increased the torture until they killed him,” they told Hakim.
One former detainee said Abdel-Kader was tortured so severely that “he couldn’t walk because his feet were swollen and filled with pus.”
The day he died, the guards “tortured him for six hours” and after he was returned to the cell he “kept vomiting,” Hakim was told.
The grim treatment echoes torture that rights groups have reported in Syrian government-run prisons, particularly since 2011, with tens of thousands of people forcibly disappeared and arbitrarily detained.
Amnesty International in 2017 accused authorities of committing secret mass hangings in the notorious Saydnaya facility.
The Observatory said HTS this month released 420 prisoners in an amnesty aimed at quelling the discontent in the northwest.
But it made no difference for Noha Al-Atrash, 30, whose husband Ahmed Majluba has been detained since December 2022, accused alternately of theft and belonging to an extremist group.
“He has been arrested five times... there is no proven reason for his detention,” she said from her home in Idlib city as her two young children held photos of their father, 38.
Majluba, a laborer, was shot in the leg “during a previous period” in HTS detention, Atrash said.
“I go to the protests, I make posters with pictures of my husband on them, and I take the kids,” said Atrash who was covered head-to-toe in a niqab.
She and her children were themselves detained for around 20 days after she hounded authorities for information.
During one prison visit, she saw her husband’s hand was broken and “his face was swollen from beatings,” she said.
“They’ve asked us to pay $3,000 to have him released,” Atrash said, but added that she doesn’t have the money.
“I have no choice but to protest... I won’t give up as long as they have my husband,” she said defiantly.
The UN’s independent commission of inquiry on Syria said recently it had “reasonable grounds to believe” HTS members had committed “acts that may amount to the war crimes of torture and cruel treatment and unlawful deprivation of liberty.”
Bassam Alahmad from the Paris-based Syrians for Truth and Justice said people were “fed up with HTS violations” such as “arbitrary arrests and torture.”
He urged families and rights groups to gather independent, credible evidence for potential future investigations.
In a camp near the Turkish border, Amina Al-Hamam, 70, said her son Ghazwan Hassun was detained by HTS in 2019 on suspicion of “informing for the regime.”
“Some people tell us he’s dead, others say he’s alive,” the distressed elderly woman said, sitting with her son’s children, aged five and nine.
Days before being detained, Hassun, a defector from the Syrian police, had published a video criticizing HTS, his family said.
During Hamam’s only visit — eight months after he was detained — Hassun told her guards used a torture method notorious across Syria where the victim has their hands tied behind their back and is suspended from them for hours.
The family has heard nothing since about the 39-year-old but has vowed to keep fighting.
“I cry for him night and day,” said Hamam.
“We fled from injustice, but here we have seen worse.”


Chemical weapons agency chief to meet Syrian officials in Damascus on Saturday, sources say

Fernando Arias, Director General. (X @OPCW)
Fernando Arias, Director General. (X @OPCW)
Updated 08 February 2025
Follow

Chemical weapons agency chief to meet Syrian officials in Damascus on Saturday, sources say

Fernando Arias, Director General. (X @OPCW)
  • The OPCW has asked the authorities in Syria to secure all relevant locations and safeguard any relevant documentation

DAMASCUS: The head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a global non-proliferation agency, will meet Syrian officials in Damascus on Saturday, three sources familiar with the visit told Reuters.
Director General Fernando Arias was expected to meet interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani, two of the sources said, in a sign of Syrian willingness to cooperate with the agency after years of strained relations under now-toppled leader Bashar Assad.
The sudden fall of the Assad government in December brought hope that the country could be rid of chemical weapons.
Following a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of people in 2013, Syria joined the OPCW under a US-Russian deal and 1,300 metric tons of chemical weapons and precursors were destroyed by the international community.
As part of membership, Damascus was supposed to be subjected to inspections. But for more than a decade the OPCW was prevented from uncovering the true scale of the chemical weapons program. Syria’s declared stockpile has never accurately reflected the situation on the ground, inspectors concluded.
When asked about contacts with the OPCW over chemical weapons still in Syria, the country’s new defense minister Murhaf Abu Qasra told Reuters in January that he “does not believe” that any remnants of Syria’s chemical weapons program remained intact.
“Even if there was anything left, it’s been bombed by the Israeli military,” Abu Qasra said, referring to a wave of Israeli strikes across Syria in the wake of Assad’s fall.
Details of the mission to Syria are still being worked out but its key aims will be finding and securing chemical stocks to prevent proliferation risk, identifying those responsible for their use and overseeing the destruction of remaining munitions.
The OPCW has asked the authorities in Syria to secure all relevant locations and safeguard any relevant documentation.
Three investigations — a joint UN-OPCW mechanism, the OPCW’s Investigation and Identification team, and a UN war crimes investigation — concluded that Syrian government forces used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine barrel bombs in attacks during the civil war that killed or injured thousands.
A French court issued an arrest warrant for Assad which was upheld on appeal over the use of banned chemical weapons against civilians. Syria and its military backer Russia always denied using chemical weapons.
The OPCW, a treaty-based agency in The Hague with 193 member countries, is tasked with implementing the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. Egypt, North Korea, and South Sudan have neither signed nor acceded to the convention and Israel has signed but not ratified it.

 


US State Department lays out plans for $7 billion-plus arms sale to Israel as Netanyahu visits DC

US State Department lays out plans for $7 billion-plus arms sale to Israel as Netanyahu visits DC
Updated 08 February 2025
Follow

US State Department lays out plans for $7 billion-plus arms sale to Israel as Netanyahu visits DC

US State Department lays out plans for $7 billion-plus arms sale to Israel as Netanyahu visits DC
  • In late January, soon after he took office, he lifted the hold on sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel

WASHINGTON: The State Department has formally told Congress that it plans to sell more than $7 billion in weapons to Israel, including thousands of bombs and missiles, just two days after President Donald Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
The massive arms sale comes as a fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas holds, even as Trump continues to tout his widely criticized proposal to move all Palestinians from Gaza and redevelop it as an international travel destination.
The sale is another step in Trump’s effort to bolster Israel’s weapons stocks. In late January, soon after he took office, he lifted the hold on sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. The Biden administration had paused a shipment of the bombs over concerns about civilian casualties, particularly during an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Trump told reporters that he released them to Israel, “because they bought them.”
According to the State Department, two separate sales were sent to Congress on Friday. One is for $6.75 billion in an array of munitions, guidance kits and other related equipment. It includes 166 small diameter bombs, 2,800 500-pound bombs, and thousands of guidance kits, fuzes and other bomb components and support equipment. Those deliveries would begin this year.
The other arms package is for 3,000 Hellfire missiles and related equipment for an estimated cost of $660 million. Deliveries of the missiles are expected to begin in 2028.
 

 


Hamas says Israeli block on diggers affecting extraction of hostages’ bodies

People walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 30, 2025. (REUTERS)
People walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 30, 2025. (REUTERS)
Updated 07 February 2025
Follow

Hamas says Israeli block on diggers affecting extraction of hostages’ bodies

People walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 30, 2025. (REUTERS)
  • Of the 251 hostages Hamas seized in its unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 76 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead

GAZA CITY: Hamas on Friday said Israel’s blocking of heavy machinery entering Gaza to clear rubble caused by war was affecting efforts to extract the bodies of hostages.
“Preventing the entry of heavy equipment and machinery needed to remove 55 million tonnes of rubble ... will undoubtedly affect the resistance’s ability to extract from under the rubble the dead prisoners (hostages),” said Salama Marouf, spokesman for Hamas’s media office in Gaza.
Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of slowing down aid deliveries expected under the terms of the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza, including key items such as fuel, tents, and heavy machinery for clearing rubble.

FASTFACT

Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of slowing down aid deliveries expected under the terms of the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza.

The Israeli government and COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, have rejected the accusation.
Of the 251 hostages Hamas seized in its unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 76 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
Hamas’ armed wing released the names of three captives it said would be freed on Saturday in a fifth hostage-prisoner swap as part of an ongoing agreement with Israel.
“Within the framework of the Al-Aqsa Flood deal for the prisoner exchange, the (Ezzedine) Al-Qassam Brigades have decided to release” the three hostages, Abu Obeida, spokesman for the armed wing, said on Telegram.

 


Khamenei warns against negotiating with US

Khamenei warns against negotiating with US
Updated 07 February 2025
Follow

Khamenei warns against negotiating with US

Khamenei warns against negotiating with US
  • Trump, who returned to the White House on Jan. 20, reinstated on Tuesday his “maximum pressure” policy toward Iran over allegations the country is seeking to develop nuclear weapons

TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei said on Friday that there should not be negotiations with the US, days after US President Donald Trump called for a new nuclear deal.
“You should not negotiate with such a government. It is unwise, it is not intelligent, it is not honorable to negotiate,” Khamenei said during a meeting with army commanders. The US had previously “ruined, violated, and tore up” a 2015 nuclear deal, he said, adding that “the same person who is in power now tore up the treaty.”
On Wednesday, Trump suggested striking a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with Iran, adding in his social media post that Tehran “cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump, who returned to the White House on Jan. 20, reinstated on Tuesday his “maximum pressure” policy toward Iran over allegations the country is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran insists its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes and denies any intention to develop atomic weapons.
Following the policy’s reinstatement, Washington on Thursday announced financial sanctions on entities and individuals accused of shipping hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Iranian crude oil to China.
Tehran on Friday condemned the sanctions as “illegal,” saying they were “categorically unjustified and contrary to international rules.”
“We must understand this correctly: they should not pretend that if we sit down at the negotiating table with that government (the US administration), problems will be solved,” Khamenei said.
“No problem will be solved by negotiating with America,” he said, citing previous “experience.”
Khamenei also warned of reciprocal measures if the US threatened or acted against Iran.
“If they threaten us, we will threaten them. If they carry out this threat, we will carry out our threat. If they attack the security of our nation, we will attack their security without hesitation,” he said.
During President Trump’s first term, which ended in 2021, Washington withdrew from the landmark nuclear deal that had imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.
Tehran adhered to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action deal until a year after Washington pulled out but then began rolling back its commitments. Efforts to revive the agreement have since faltered.
Khamenei said Iran was “very generous” during the negotiations culminating in the deal, but it “did not achieve the intended results.”
Iranian political expert Afifeh Abedi said Khamenei’s remarks highlight “a serious concern” that negotiations “will result in the US breaching its commitments.”
“Iran understands that Trump’s willingness to negotiate is a disingenuous, reactionary move driven by other objectives rather than a genuine commitment to reaching an agreement,” she said.
Iran has repeatedly expressed a willingness to revive the nuclear deal, and President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for an end to the country’s isolation.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi recently said that the new US administration should work to regain Tehran’s trust if it wants a new round of nuclear talks.
Western sanctions, especially since the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, have taken a toll on millions of Iranians struggling to make ends meet amid high inflation and a plunging currency.
Khamenei acknowledged this on Friday, saying, “almost most segments of the population have some problems,” but adding they could be solved internally.
The current “respected government can reduce the people’s livelihood problems,” he said.
Without directly mentioning Gaza, Khamenei said on Friday the US administration was trying “to change the map of the world.”
“Of course, it is only on paper, it has no basis in reality,” he said.

 


Scholz vows support for ‘free and safe’ Syria

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. (AP)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. (AP)
Updated 07 February 2025
Follow

Scholz vows support for ‘free and safe’ Syria

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. (AP)
  • German Chancellor stresses ‘importance of the fight against terrorism’

BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Syria’s President Ahmed Al-Sharaa on Friday that Berlin was ready to support the transition to a “free and safe” future after the ouster of Bashar Assad.

Scholz expressed Berlin’s “willingness to support the reconstruction of Syria so that Syria can become a free and safe home for all” in an hour-long conversation with Al-Sharaa, the chancellor’s spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, said in a statement.
In his first call with the new Syrian leader, Scholz “congratulated the Syrian people on their success in ending the Assad regime’s reign of terror.”
Al-Sharaa was appointed as Syria’s president at the end of January after militants toppled Assad, ending more than five decades of the family’s iron-fisted rule.
Scholz told the new Syrian leader he needed to lead an “inclusive political process ... that allows all Syrians, regardless of their ethnic or religious group,to participate.”
The chancellor also stressed “the ongoing importance of the fight against terrorism for security in Syria,” according to the statement.
Scholz said that Germany would work with European and international partners in this regard.
Al-Sharaa has been invited to visit Germany, his office said on Friday following the phone call.
The invitation came two days after Al-Sharaa’s office announced he had been invited to visit France.
Scholz and Al-Sharaa agreed on Syria’s need for an inclusive political process that allows the participation of all Syrians and provides rights and protection, the German spokesperson said.
“The Federal Chancellor underlined the ongoing importance of the fight against terrorism for security in Syria, the region and worldwide,” the spokesperson added.
Al-Sharaa has made a push to rebuild Syria’s diplomatic ties since his Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, spearheaded the overthrow of Assad.
However, the country faces a difficult transition amid unresolved territorial and governance challenges. Armed forces in the south, including from the Druze minority, have responded cautiously to the new authority in Damascus.
Also on Friday, Human Rights Watch warned that US aid suspensions could worsen “life-threatening conditions” in camps holding relatives of suspected extremists in northeast Syria, urging Washington to maintain support.
Kurdish-run camps and prisons in the region still hold around 56,000 people with alleged or perceived links to Daesh, years after the extremists’ territorial defeat.
They include suspects locked up in prisons, as well as the wives and children of Daesh fighters held in the Al-Hol and Roj internment camps.
“The US government’s suspension of foreign aid to non-governmental organizations operating in these camps is exacerbating life-threatening conditions, risking further destabilization of a precarious security situation,” HRW said in a statement.
The rights group said the aid freeze could “limit the provision of essential services for camp residents,” citing international humanitarian workers.