(Zaman al-Wasl) In a dark cell in the military security branch in Aleppo the detainee Mohammad Amin Mirat could hear the screams of detained women in the close by cells as they were tortured at the hands of an assistant officer who changed his name as a snake changes its skin, and he remained unknown to the detainees as he tortured them while they were blindfolded.
Years after he was released, the former detainee was able, by coincidence through Facebook to identify his torturer known as Mohammad Kadro. A man who became rich by extorting detainees’ families at times or taking spoils at checkpoints at other times.
On 20 August 2014, the rights activist and journalist Mohammad Amin Mirat was arrested and remained detained for around 7 months. He spent 35 days of his detention in the military security branch and following the confession of one of his demonstration friends he was transferred to Palestine Intelligence Branch.
In a statement to Zaman al-Wasl, Mirat recalls the details of his detention in the military security branch in Aleppo where Mohammad Kadro was an officer and would take shifts torturing him alongside other members. According to Mirat, Kadro was the most brutal and persistent in torture, and many times he put out his cigarettes on detainees’ bodies. He added that the aforementioned officer, “changed his name repeatedly from Abu Jamil, to Abu Musa, or Abu Imad so no one would discover him, and he used to change his appearance from time to time to disguise his identity.”
Kadro, who used to be present at the statue round about (a statue of Basel al-Assad stands), managed to become wealthy through thuggish activities, raiding, and extorting families. According to Mirat, he has many apartments in al-Athamiyat and al-Firkan, and more than one house and villa on Villa street which is the first neighborhood in al-Hamadaniyat, as well as owning several cars carrying sequenced gold plated number plates which he commandeered through his thug activities despite his claim that he works in selling cars.
Kadro used to imply to detainees’ families that he was able to get their children out of detention and after receiving large sums of money he would disappear.
According to Mirat, Kadro did not stop his thuggish activities there, but would charge some people to write an intelligence report setting up the downfall of their enemies other than issuing identity cards for shabiha from the military security to facilitate their passage at check points, where a single identity card costs 40 thousand Syrian Pounds, and he would steal the wages allocated to them, as well as raiding with his many men houses deserted by their owners in al-Hamadaniyet area when the regime still controlled the area where they would rob the houses and empty them in broad daylight.
Mirat confirmed that Kadro practiced his brutality inside the branch against detainees while torturing them by hanging them from their arms, electrocuting them at time, beating them, and he would enter the women’s cells to hit them and swear at them.
Mohammad Amin Mirat who worked as a producer and presenter for the radio program on radion Haret F.M. that by coincidence he recognized Kadro’s picture from his Facebook page but Kadro deleted his profile when he realized he had been discovered.
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