Turkish-backed faction tortured civilian to death in Afrin: report

On Feb. 25, 2022, local activists posted several photos of a dead body displaying marks of torture on social media.

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2022/04/01 15:42

A fighter with the Turkey-backed Faylaq al-Sham rebel faction in Syria shoots in the air during the funeral of 10 of the faction's fighters in Idlib, Oct. 26, 2020. (AFP)

Syria Syrian National Army Afrin Syrians for Truth and Justice al-Sham Legion

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Abdulrazaq Trad al-Obaid al-Nuaimi was tortured to death by members of an armed opposition faction, the human rights organization Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) said in a report on Thursday.

He was the second man tortured to death by armed factions occupying the northwestern Syrian Kurdish Afrin region since the start of 2022.

Local activists posted several photos on social media of a dead body displaying brutal marks of torture. STJ Field researchers (STJ followed leads on footage and discovered that the victim was Abdulrazaq Trad al-Obaid al-Nuaimi.https://t.co/cK7q9NldUM
— SyriansTruth&Justice (@STJ_SYRIA_ENG) April 1, 2022

On Feb. 25, local activists posted several photos of a body with marks of torture on social media. The victim was identified as al-Nuaimi, a civilian displaced from Hama province living in the Kurdish-majority region of Afrin.

Turkish-backed factions have occupied Afrin since March 2018, when the Turkish Army launched a cross-border offensive against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). Al-Nuaimi had been living in Afrin since Turkey invaded and occupied the enclave.

Al-Nuaimi was detained in one of the security centers of the al-Sham Legion (also known as Faylaq al-Sham in Arabic) in Afrin, where he was tortured to death.

According to a relative of the victim, the real reason behind al-Nuaimi's arrest was that he was late paying the monthly tax/royalty the al-Sham Legion imposes on the residents living in the areas they control.

"Addressing the photos on the same day, the legion published a statement confessing to the torture and subsequent death of al-Nuaimi in a detention center affiliated with its security administration," the STJ report said.

In a statement, the faction said they have "arrested the interrogation committee and the members in charge of the detention center where the crime occurred. They were delivered to the military judiciary . . . with the aim of achieving full justice."

Earlier on Jan. 20, the STJ also reported that two civilians died in prisons of Turkish-backed groups in Serekaniye and Tal Abyad in northern Syria, which have both been under Turkish control since October 2019.

Also, in February, the STJ published a report verifying the torture and death of a civilian, Rezan Khalil, at the hands of the Tajammu Ahrar al-Sharqiya (Gathering of Free Men of the East), which operates under the umbrella of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA).

Moreover, a recent report released by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria documented how Turkish-backed groups in Afrin are continuing their looting and pillaging of the occupied Syrian Kurdish enclave.