Who is Mohammad Kanjo Hassan? The former Syrian official accused of Sednaya prison executions

Highest-ranking officer to be arrested since the overthrow of the Assad regime has held many senior positions

Mohammad Kanjo Hassan, thought to have overseen torture and executions in Sednaya prison near Damascus, has been arrested. Photo: X

Live updates: Follow the latest on Syria

Syria's new authorities have arrested the former head of the military judiciary in the ousted Assad regime, Mohammad Kanjo Hassan, who issued death sentences for people held in the infamous Sednaya prison, according to UK-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

He had held several high-profile roles under fallen president Bashar Al Assad's government.

"Hassan was arrested in the village of Khirbet al-Ma'za in the countryside of Tartus along with 20 other members [of Mr Al Assad's government] during a large-scale security campaign carried out by the Military Operations Department", a day after deadly clashes erupted in the coastal province of Tartus between security forces that tried to arrest him and gunmen who sought to protect him.

Mr Hassan is the highest-ranking officer to have been arrested since Mr Al Assad was overthrown in a lightning offensive by rebels on December 8. He held the position of director of the military judiciary and head of the field court, and was responsible for many executions at Sednaya prison near Damascus, the site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances, under the regime.

Mr Hassan headed Syria's military field court from 2011 to 2014, said Diab Serriya, co-founder of the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Sednaya Prison, and was later promoted to Syria's chief of military justice.

A former officer in the Syrian army, he holds a degree in law from the University of Damascus. He joined the army and rose through the ranks of the military judiciary, becoming prosecutor at the field court.

Many activists and opposition figures have accused him of a series of crimes at Sednaya and consider him one of the most prominent figures to be held responsible for the alleged acts.

A woman looks round the liberated Sednaya prison near Damascus, which was known as 'the human slaughterhouse' under Bashar Al Assad’s rule. Reuters

Syria's exiled National Coalition of opposition forces welcomed the arrest, describing it as an "important step on the path to justice and the prosecution of those who committed crimes against the Syrian people".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates more than 100,000 people have died in Syria's jails and detention centres since the civil war broke out in 2011.

The fate of tens of thousands of prisoners and missing people remains one of the most harrowing legacies of the war. About 100,000 who were detained, including political prisoners, are still unaccounted for.

Human rights groups have documented systematic torture, sexual violence and mass killings at Sednaya, and international organisations have repeatedly called for the establishment of mechanisms for justice and accountability in Syria.

Thousands rushed to the prison after the rebels’ swift advance ended more than five decades of Al Assad family rule, freeing many who had been held for decades in the regime-run prisons.