(Zaman Al Wasl)- It has been three days since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) stormed the house of Zaman al-Wasl reporter in the western countryside of Aleppo city and took him to an unknown destination.
Members of the former Syrian offshoot of al-Qaeda did not reveal the reason behind the arbitrary arrest of Juma'a Haj Hamdo.
Fathi Ibrahim Bayoud, the editor-in-chief of Zaman al-Wasl assured that Hamdo was arrested over his covering for the suffering of people in HTS-held areas.
The detention place of al-Hamdo is still unknown, he added.
Bayoud has demanded the immediate release of the prominent local reporter, saying al-Hamdo's arrest is a new attempt by those who seek to silence free speech and revolutionary journalism.
'They tried in the past seven years and they are continuing their unethical goal,' he added.
For over 15 years, Juma'a has been working as a reporter and photojournalist, seven of it he has been covering the war and people's suffering for Zaman al-Wasl.
He was detained in 2011 by the regime security for his pro-revolution media activities.
Like ISIS (Daesh), Tahrir al-Sham wants to create an Islamic state of its own, according to the Independent. That dream makes the whole region under its control in northwestern Syria a ground for mounting violations and abuses.
The formerly-known Jabhat al-Nusra has detained and killed most of its opponents including citizen journalists and human rights advocates.
Raed al-Fares and Hamoud Junaid, two Syrian pro-democracy activists and citizen journalists, were shot dead Friday by Tahrir al-Sham last November in the village of Kafrabel in northern Idlib province.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), since May 2018, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has detained at least two journalists in northwestern Syria.
Zaman Al Wasl
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