France Arrests Syrian Extremist on War Crime Charges
A senior member of Syrian armed group Jaysh al-Islam implicated in the disappearance of a prominent activist in 2013 has been arrested in France and charged with war crimes and torture, a judicial source told AFP.
The suspect, a former spokesman of the group who is in his early thirties, was in France on an Erasmus student visa and detained in the southern city of Marseille.
He appeared before an investigating magistrate in Paris who charged him with torture, war crimes and complicity in forced disappearances, the source said on Friday.
Jaysh al-Islam is notably suspected of involvement in the December 2013 kidnapping of Syrian activist Razan Zaitouneh, her husband Wael Hamada and two colleagues, Samira Khalil and Nazem Hammadi. They have never been found.
Zaitouneh was one of the most prominent civil society figures in the uprising against Bashar al-Assad's regime that erupted in March 2011 and then descended into civil war.
That year, she was awarded the prestigious Sakharov prize for human rights along with other activists. She was a vociferous critic of abuses by all parties in the conflict.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and two other groups behind the complaint said in a statement that the man arrested is called Majdi Mustafa Nameh, although he operates under the nom-de-guerre of Islam Alloush.
They said Islam Alloush is a former captain in the Syrian armed forces, who then defected and became a senior official and spokesman for Jaysh al-Islam, close to its leader Zahran Alloush.
"Islam Alloush was also allegedly involved in the forced enlistment of children in the armed group. Several victims also directly incriminate him for kidnapping and torture," their statement said.
The suspect, a former spokesman of the group who is in his early thirties, was in France on an Erasmus student visa and detained in the southern city of Marseille.
He appeared before an investigating magistrate in Paris who charged him with torture, war crimes and complicity in forced disappearances, the source said on Friday.
Jaysh al-Islam is notably suspected of involvement in the December 2013 kidnapping of Syrian activist Razan Zaitouneh, her husband Wael Hamada and two colleagues, Samira Khalil and Nazem Hammadi. They have never been found.
Zaitouneh was one of the most prominent civil society figures in the uprising against Bashar al-Assad's regime that erupted in March 2011 and then descended into civil war.
That year, she was awarded the prestigious Sakharov prize for human rights along with other activists. She was a vociferous critic of abuses by all parties in the conflict.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and two other groups behind the complaint said in a statement that the man arrested is called Majdi Mustafa Nameh, although he operates under the nom-de-guerre of Islam Alloush.
They said Islam Alloush is a former captain in the Syrian armed forces, who then defected and became a senior official and spokesman for Jaysh al-Islam, close to its leader Zahran Alloush.
"Islam Alloush was also allegedly involved in the forced enlistment of children in the armed group. Several victims also directly incriminate him for kidnapping and torture," their statement said.
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