Syria has moved to open trial proceedings against one of the most high-profile militiamen from the civil war, a cousin of former president Bashar Al Assad who admits he was “not an angel” but denies killings.
The Justice Ministry said Waseem Al Assad, once one of the most feared men in Syria, was referred after interrogation to a judge who will set a date for his trial.
Among the charges he faces are forming “murderous fighting groups”, involvement in “terrorism and threatening acts” and involvement in killing civilians in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana in 2012. It is the most concrete legal move so far against operatives of the former regime who were captured over the past year.
Security forces captured Waseem Al Assad in a major breakthrough in June. The Interior Ministry described him as leader of the Baath Brigades militia and “one of the top narcotics dealers and criminals in the bygone regime”.
Information provided to the authorities by smugglers was key to his capture, on his way to the border with Lebanon, according to a security official.
With the former president and his close circle having fled to Moscow a year ago, the authorities have been under popular pressure to apprehend and try remaining operatives of the former regime who could be within reach. Officials have also pledged to stamp out a cross-border narcotics trade, particularly in the amphetamine Captagon, which helped finance the former regime.
However, revenge killings of mostly junior members and their associates have been rife, as well as random killings of Alawites, the minority sect whose members underpinned the former system. The new order is led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, a former affiliate of Al Qaeda.
Interrogation clips
In televised segments of an interrogation aired by state media late on Tuesday, Waseem Al Assad denied killing people during the civil war and co-operating with a Lebanese drug lord, although he had taken a selfie and other photos with him.
He demurred when an investigative judge asked him about his role in the former regime, saying he recruited loyalist militiamen but “had nothing to do with arming them”. Visits he made to paramilitary units near Damascus were only to see whether new recruits “needed food or money”.
Swearing on the Quran, Waseem Al Assad said money he made during the conflict only came from “selling and buying cars”, although he admitted receiving payments in gold from families of soldiers for using his influence with the military to grant them holidays, or to move them from one unit to another.
Asked by the judge about recruiting men to a paramilitary unit attached to the Fourth Armoured Division in the early stages of the civil war, he said the unit was” at the rear” of military attacks, and did not initiate combat. The Fourth Armoured Division, controlled by the former president's brother Maher Al Assad, was key in the crackdown on the 2011 Syrian revolt in its initial, peaceful stages.
During the civil war that started late in 2011, the Fourth Armoured Division besieged rebel areas and was suspected of carrying out field executions as well as other atrocities, as well as protecting key smuggling routes to Lebanon and to Jordan.
The judge asked Waseem Al Assad about pictures in which he appeared with Nouh Zaiter, a Lebanese drug criminal, including a selfie. “He is supposedly working in drugs trade. Three quarters of Syria were photographed with him,” he replied. He argued that had he actually worked with Zaiter, he would not have exposed himself by appearing in pictures with him.
The judge, whose name was not released, also asked him about unrest in Jaramana in 2012 in which at least one civilian was killed. Waseem Al Assad said that although he was at the scene in a car, the killing was done by the Civil Defence militia, of which he had no control. The judge cautioned him that it was not in his interest to pretend “to be an angel”.
“I was not an angel,” he said.
