Gang loyal to Assad smuggles Syrian heritage: Leaked document

Reporting by George Hadad; Writing by Yusra Ahmed

(Zaman Al Wasl)- A leaked document reveals that militants from National Defence Militia in Hama province were involved in smuggling Syrian archaeological relics and antiques with cover of top Syrian officials.

Munther al-Mir, with help of another two people and a relative to Minister of Defence called Abo Fawaz, worked on smuggling monuments from the Archaeological hill in al-Sathiat area.

The document, which seen by Zaman al-Wasl, mentioned that Munther worked with Abo Fawaz on smuggling arms from al-Raqqa, as all barriers facilitated their way without inspection, by Mosib Salameh and Ali Hamdan’s orders for huge amount of money in return.

According to the document, Munther abducted a man called Khalaf Hajo from al-Raqqa after stopping his car, later the man disappeared with SP.320 thousand. Complaints mentioned similar crimes Munther committed, but no one did anything for them.

Another crime was mentioned in the document, when he with his men attacked al-Karim village situated to the West of Salamiyeh, attacked houses and arrested men, women and children and steal all money and valuables.

The document mentioned that Munther had occupied a-five-stars- touristic building on Salamiyeh way from his owner “Mokhlis Yaghi” and transformed it into a luxury office for himself.

In the end, the document presented Munther's history, as he used to work in fixing bicycles, to suddenly become a millionaire owning many properties with bodyguards, and no one questioned the source of his money.

Zaman al-Wasl exclusively published earlier many documents showed reports members from the National Defence Army and Shabiha, wrote against each other, and sent to the Air Forces Intelligence, which documented killing, robbery, burning, torturing and kidnapping crimes of Mosib and his men against people from all religions and sections and even regime’s supporters.

The leaked documents cause serious consequences in Shabiha's community in Salamiya, especially those about Mosib Salameh’s Shabiha in Salamiyah, as they resulted in arresting many members from the National Defence army including Ali Hamdan, the most important man for Mosib, because they embarrassed the regime before the public.