Regime frees family after hostage deal including 7 soldiers

Translation by Dani Murad

After long months of negotiations, a swap operation has been conducted to free a number of regime’s soldiers who were held prisoners with Ghutta's rebels in exchange for a family of four, a father (Mohammad Murjan, a mother (Hiba Saryol), and their two children who did not exceed 3 years old.

The prisoners' released list from the rebels side, included 7 militants, among them Lieutenant Ghadeer Al Yousuf, and a Sergeant Hussein Katrib from Al Salamyia, as well as 5 others.

Lieutenant Al Yousuf, is considered the difficult number in the exchange deal from regime’s point of view, being the son of an Alawite officer who works in the presidential palace, and the fact that he comes from a wealthy family.

Yousef’s family have tried many times to get him out, offering sums of money on the rebels, but they refused totally and insisted that his release is only associated with the release of prisoners detained by the Syrian regime.

Yousef has been captured during the operation of liberating the “Transport Regiment” in Eastern Ghutta , at the hands of Army of Islam (Jaysh al-Islam) more than a year and a half .

In a statement to " Zaman Alwasl , "Abu Subhi Taha the brigade commander of Duma’s Martyrs, who conducted the exchange deal with the regime, said that the treatment of prisoners in rebels’ prisons was humanly and even classy as their pictures reveal, and they were from different sects (Alawi, Ismaili, Druze, Christian) who have been captured in the field during clashes.

In contrast, regime’s treatment to the released prisoners was not human at all, where they have been subjected to torture and humiliation, which is a well known characteristic to this criminal regime and the abuse was obvious on the family after their release. Taha clarified.

Regime’s brutality against our prisoners, will not lead us to treat their prisoners the same way, we have values, principles and a religion that prevents us from treating prisoners in this way, even if they fight against us. Taha Confirms

Taha clarified that Al Tawba prison is full of Alawite detainees and other sects, who are treated according to the Islamic sharia and its principles of respecting human rights and dignity.

One of the leaders who supervised the swap operation commented to Zaman Alwasl saying:” it’s disgraceful for the regime to detain innocent women and children and then negotiate their freedom to release his officers who have done severe crimes against the Syrian people”.

Regime’s brutality was exposed internationally in a report made by a team of renowned war crimes prosecutors and forensic experts who found "direct evidence" of regime’s crimes.

Their report showed many gruesome pictures to bodies with signs of starvation, brutal beatings, strangulation, and other forms of torture and killing which prove the systematic torture and execution of thousands of prisoners by Al Baath regime headed by Bashar al-Assad.

The report, which is not associated with the UN and is based on information from a defector Syrian officer, relies on 55,000 photos that correspond to more than 11,000 corpses, that will haunt the conscience of the international community for its carelessness toward the Syrian people.