Inside the Majdi N. Trial #18: Testimony of Syrian Witness on the Massacre of Adra Al-Omaliya
TRIAL OF MAJDI N.
Court of Assize – Paris, France
Trial Monitoring Summary #18
Hearing Date: May 19, 2025
CAUTION: Some testimony may include graphic descriptions of torture, rape or other violent acts.
Note that this summary is not a verbatim transcript of the trial; it is merely an unofficial summary of the proceedings.
Throughout this summary, [information located in brackets are notes from our trial monitor] and “information placed in quotes are statements made by the witness, judges or counsel.” The names and identifying information of witnesses have been redacted.
[Note: SJAC provides a summary of the proceedings while redacting certain details to protect witness privacy and to preserve the integrity of the trial.]
[Note: Rather than publishing the trial reports of the Majdi N. case in chronological order, SJAC has organized them thematically and coherently based on the content of the hearings, making the material more accessible by highlighting key issues and connections across the proceedings.]
SJAC’s 18th trial monitoring report details parts of day 11 (afternoon) of the trial of Majdi N. in Paris, France. On this trial day, W14 recounted the crimes he witnessed during the attack launched December 11, 2013, on Adra Al-Omaliya and until he left the city on December 30, 2013. He said to have been the only survivor of the massacre. Most notably, he discovered burnt bodies in the town’s bakery and saw corpses lying on the street or in parks, sometimes amputated or beheaded. W14 also reported corpses being thrown from upper floors. W14 was an eyewitness of the execution of the parents of an Alawi family and explained that after they got killed, factions placed the children at his sister’s home. Questioned by the Court, W14 reported that some bodies wore military uniforms, but believed that most victims were civilians. According to him, all victims belonged to religious minorities. W14 also described how people who were arrested in Adra Al-Omaliya were then transported to Ghouta through trenches.
Day 11 – May 19, 2025
Afternoon Session
Proceedings resumed at 4:32 PM.
[Redacted name], W14 was heard pursuant to the discretionary authority of the Presiding Judge. [According to Article 310 of the French Code of Criminal Procedure, the Presiding Judge may, during the proceedings, call and hear any person whose testimony is deemed useful in establishing the truth. As they are not sworn in, their statements are regarded merely as informational and do not carry the same probative value as formal witness testimony.]
W14 declared that he did not know the Accused but had contact with the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM). W14 is from Douma and used to live in Adra Al-Omaliya. He was arrested twice by the regime in 2011-2012 and 2014. His father and brother were also detained and are missing to this day.
W14 recounted that he left Douma and traveled to Adra Al-Omaliya in December 2013 because he was wanted by the Syrian regime. At five in the morning on December 11, 2013, he remembered hearing gunfire and clashes. At seven in the morning, Jaysh Al-Islam, Jabhat Al-Nusra جبهة النصرة, Ahrar Al-Sham أحرار الشام, and Ajnad As-Sham أجناد الشام entered the city. Each faction bore its emblem, W14 recounted, including Jaysh Al-Islam, whose fighters wore headbands bearing the group’s name.
W14 recalled that he was in his mother’s house with his brother [redacted name], ياسر عيون F58 and his brother [redacted name]. W14’s sister was living a hundred meters away in front of the police office, in residential subdivision No. 200, W14 added.
Many civil servants from different religious affiliations and different Syrian cities lived in Adra Al-Omaliya, W14 relayed, adding that 200,000 people displaced from Eastern Ghouta also lived in the town. As the clashes began to erupt, W14 went out on the street with his brother F58 and noticed that factions were arresting people based on their hometown [which appears on their ID]. F58 got arrested but W14 did not, because he had an identity card from Douma.
W14 recounted that they then left for his sister’s home. He noted that the police office had been taken over by factions and understood later that it was Jaysh Al-Islam. All factions went inside buildings and arrested or killed non-Sunnis, W14 recalled. For instance, as they were looking for a member of a Shia family from Idlib living next door and did not find him, they took the father, the son [redacted name], and the daughter [redacted name]W14 testified that only the father was then released.
As passage inside the city became complicated, being from Douma facilitated W14’s movements. Like all other families, W14’s family stayed in the basement for four to five days after the attack, W14 recounted, and they only went out when the airstrikes quieted to find food or have a wash.
Five days after the attack, W14 went to the bakery [فرن]. He testified that it was the first time he saw burnt people [أشخاص محروقة]. Two corpses were on the conveyor belt where the bread was passing and one was on the ground, W14 described. They were completely burnt, and not only on precise spots, as if these people had gone into the oven. The face’s bones were apparent on one of the corpses. When W14 left the bakery to go to his sister’s home, he saw corpses on the streets, in the gardens. One had his arm amputated, he reported, and one had his hands tied behind his back and was beheaded. Others had bullets in their chests. Responding to Presiding Judge Lavergne, W14 asserted that all were civilians and were rather young men. At a later point in the questioning, W14 indicated that his own brother and father were also civilians.
In the building of W14’s sister, he continued, Jaysh Al-Islam had taken control of the first floor that belonged to an Alawi family which was entirely executed in front of W14’s eyes. The father worked in the National Defense Forces قوات دفاع الوطني and supported the Syrian regime. W14 asserted that the parents were not fighters, but were at their home and unarmed when they were arrested. When questioned by the Presiding Judge Lavergne, W14 clarified saying that the father and the mother were executed in the park surrounded by the buildings, and the children placed at W14’s home.
A couple of days later, W14 noted that other children had been placed at his sister’s home. W14 was told that the parents also belonged to the National Defense Forces and met the same fate [as the aforementioned Alawi parents]. W14 further recounted that he saw corpses in cars and corpses that had been thrown from upper floors. As he walked through parks, he saw corpses everywhere, W14 reported. [The factions] were looking for W14 and his brother to compel them to dig trenches, W14 continued, and at this moment, W14 saw a corpse in a military uniform being thrown from a building close to the bakery. W14 called the man who throw the corpse [redacted name]. This man was the one who then exhorted them to dig, but W14 called a person from the forces of the Islamic Union of Ajnad As-Sham for help, and they managed to go home.
W14 also remembered bodies being piled on top of each other on pickup trucks. He recalled seeing corpses wearing military uniforms in some trucks, but in other vehicles, only civilians. Presiding Judge Lavergne asked how he knew that they were civilians. W14 responded that he did not know but could only tell that people wearing uniforms were certainly soldiers.
Presiding Judge Lavergne asked if W14 could estimate how many people died in Adra Al-Omaliya. W14 assumed that between December 11 and December 30, when they left, he saw around 40 to 50 corpses. Presiding Judge Lavergne then wanted to know if W14 saw elderly people or children among the victims. W14 said that he could not determine the exact age, but some seemed to be under 18 years old. Most corpses did not wear military uniforms, he added.
Presiding Judge Lavergne asked if civilian buildings were targeted by airstrikes. W14 asserted that after their departure on December 30, the Syrian regime reduced his sister’s building to ashes. W14 recounted that there were first mortar attacks, and the military air force arrived a week later. The soldiers affiliated with the regime who were still inside the city were being hunted down, W14 added. Presiding Judge Lavergne wondered if rebels had lists of people they intended to arrest, which W14 confirmed. Responding to Presiding Judge Lavergne, W14 indicated that there were no military barracks in Adra Al-Omaliya. W14 said he did not know why the city was attacked but reported that factions used to deplore that people of Adra Al-Omaliya were at peace while Ghouta was under siege.
Presiding Judge Lavergne wanted to know if these people had been targeted because they were soldiers or because of their religious affiliation. [W14’s response was unclear to the trial monitor.] Presiding Judge Lavergne then asked if some people were spared from execution and detained. W14 confirmed not everybody got killed, explaining that gradually, people were transported to Ghouta. Refugees of Adra Al-Omaliya were first transferred to the edge of the city, in a zone called At-Tawasso’ التوسع, W14 reported, and factions then began to dig trenches toward Ghouta. W14 said that only non-Sunnis, including Druze, Ismaili, Alawis, etc., were kidnapped and transported to Eastern Ghouta, stressing that all factions carried out such arrests. Responding to Presiding Judge Lavergne, W14 asserted that he himself saw people being transported. In 2018, as factions left Ghouta to northern Syria, W14 continued, the number of prisoners who were released was significantly lower than the amount of people who had been arrested in Adra Al-Omaliya and transported to Ghouta.
Presiding Judge Lavergne inquired about the trenches, and W14 said they were meant to protect factions from the regime. W14 recalled that after he and his family left, corpses were still lying on the streets. W14 added that he heard about corpses being buried in Adra Al-Omaliya because it was difficult to transport corpses to Ghouta, but he did not see it himself. Responding to Presiding Judge Lavergne, W14 confirmed that valuable objects stored in apartments were stolen and added that his and his sister’s home were looted. W14 reported that he witnessed no sexual violence committed against women.
W14 confirmed he was a Sunni Muslim and explained that Jaysh Al-Islam and the Islamic Union of Ajnad As-Sham knew him because he was from an important family. So, when Jaysh Al-Islam came to search their home, they did not enter. Jabhat Al-Nusra, however, did not know his family, W14 continued. W14 heard that when this faction came to their home, they searched the house despite the fact that they were from Douma.
W14 recounted that after he and his brother left Adra Al-Omaliya, they were arrested [by the Syrian regime] on January 7, 2014. They were first detained in the premises of the State Security, Branch 279, for a month, then at the Criminal Security Branch فرع الأمن الجنائي, and lastly in Adra prison. W14 indicated that he paid 17,000 dollars for his release and then left for Turkey.
When questioned if he had heard about Jaysh Al-Islam [prior to the attack on Adra Al-Omaliya], W14 recounted that he used to work for the local committee of Douma and explained that they were aware of pressure exerted by Jaysh Al-Islam to take control over the committees. W14 explained that he also took part in negotiations to evacuate people out of Ghouta [in 2018] and recalled meetings with Jaysh Al-Islam on Skype or Zoom. Two spokespersons of Jaysh Al-Islam were from family [redacted name]. W14 later added that their true family name was [redacted name]. Among the members of Jaysh Al-Islam W14 had heard of, he named Zahran Alloush, [redacted name], F28, [redacted name] from family [redacted name], and Islam Alloush.
Civil Parties’ Counsels’ Questioning of W14
Counsel Bailly wondered why W14 believed that Majdi N. belonged to the leaders of Jaysh Al-Islam alongside other figures controlling the group between 2013 and 2016. W14 responded that after he left for Turkey in 2015, he remained the representative of Douma’s local committee and, as such, kept contact with people from Ghouta. As such, W14 could tell that these figures were central to the organization of Jaysh Al-Islam.
Counsel Bailly asked if leaders decided to leave Jaysh Al-Islam because of the crimes that had been committed in Adra Al-Omaliya. W14 denied, stressing that he was the only survivor of the massacre today. W14 added that his sister left for Damascus, after he, his brother, and his brother-in-law got arrested. W14 confirmed that everybody was disappeared.
Prosecution's Questioning of W14
Prosecutor Thouault quoted the Commission of Inquiry of the United Nations and some press articles which stated that around a thousand civilians were kidnapped and detained by rebels in Adra Al-Omaliya and asked W14 to give his opinion of this figure. W14 said the figure seemed plausible even though he could not confirm it, but asserted that all civilians belonged to minority groups.
Prosecutor Thouault inquired about passages unknown to the Syrian regime that W14 took to leave Douma for Adra Al-Omaliya in November 2013. W14 reported that he traveled through rural areas to avoid regime checkpoints. W14 also mentioned passages reserved for factions. W14 for instance explained that when the organization he was working for in the Ghouta received computers, the devices were easily smuggled through the passages of Al-Qalamoun القلمون to Ghouta. Prosecutor Thouault wondered if these passages could be tunnels, which W14 denied, explaining that it was rather rural areas. W14 also mentioned trenches used as passages in the period between 2014 and 2015. When he left Adra Al-Omaliya and got arrested by the regime, W14 continued, there was only one passage that people could take.
When questioned about Majdi N.’s role within Jaysh Al-Islam, W14 said he was spokesperson and saw photos in which he appeared in military clothes. Prosecutor Thouault asked how he knew that Majdi N. belong to Jaysh Al-Islam’s inner circle, and W14 said he knew that because part of his own family belonged to the group and, as a person from Douma, he well knew the different families and their affiliations.
The Defense had no questions for W14.
Proceedings were suspended at 6:25 PM.
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