The Islamist rebel commander responsible for the downfall of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has said that those responsible for torture and killing in Syria’s notorious prison system will not evade justice, after the opening of detention centres revealed the extent of the regime’s crimes against its own people.
Pardons or amnesties would not be granted for implicated regime officials, Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, said in a statement published on the state broadcaster’s Telegram channel. “We will pursue them in Syria, and we ask countries to hand over those who fled so we can achieve justice,” he said.
Assad’s commanders have been hunted down across the country in the two weeks since Jolani’s group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched a surprise offensive on the northern city of Aleppo that led to the swift collapse of one of the most oppressive police states in the world and ended almost 14 years of brutal civil war. Many high-ranking officials have fled abroad, and some are believed to be in hiding on the coast, where the regime’s support was traditionally strongest.
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