Syria | Rebel leader pledges to go after Assad's men for torture, war crimes

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani aka Ahmed al-Sharaa, the Syrian rebel leader who led the lightning offensive that put an end to Bashar al-Assad's rule, on Tuesday (December 10) vowed to go after senior officials responsible for torture and abuses under the previous regime.

Sharaa met outgoing Prime Minister Mohammed al-Jalali “to coordinate a transfer of power that guarantees the provision of services” to Syria’s people, a statement posted on the rebels’ Telegram channels said.

Also read: Syrian crisis will continue for a while; rebels not a unified force: Former Indian diplomats

The statement added that the new government “will not hesitate to hold accountable the criminals, murderers, security and army officers involved in torturing the Syrian people”.

“We will offer rewards to anyone who provides information about senior army and security officers involved in war crimes,” he said, adding the incoming authorities would seek the return of officials who have fled abroad.

Meanwhile, the regime change in Syria seems to have come as a rebirth for the thousands of inmates in Syria’s prisons and detention centres, many of them jailed for dissent.

According to news agency AFP, thousands gathered outside Saydnaya prison near Damascus, synonymous with the worst atrocities of Assad's rule, to look for their relatives.

Over 1 lakh inmates are believed to have died -- including executions and natural deaths -- in Syrian prisons during the Assad rule, according to a 2021 report by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Of them, more than 30,000 died in Saydnaya alone.

Also read: Who is Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, leader of Syrian rebel group that overthrew Assad?

An Amnesty International investigation found that “murder, torture, enforced disappearances and extermination carried out at Saydnaya since 2011 have been perpetrated as part of an attack against the civilian population that has been widespread, as well as systematic, and carried out in furtherance of state policy”. Such were the tales of torture in Saydnaya that it was known as a “human slaughterhouse”.

With Assad gone, the family members of these inmates, many of whom have been detained for years, are looking for them. Among them is Aida Taha, 65, who is looking for her brother, arrested in 2012. “I ran like crazy. But I found out that some prisoners were still in the basements. There are three or four floors underground,” she told AFP.