Two Months After Assad’s Fall, Assad-Like Violations Are Still Being Committed in Syria

Last month, Ahmed Al-Sharaa was officially named president of Syria’s transitional government, an action partnered with sweeping changes to the country’s governance such as the cancellation of the constitution and dissolution of the former government’s parliament, military and security forces. Before and after his official title as president, Al-Sharaa has made various promises to Syrians relating to future national justice and accountability efforts. Given Assad’s legacy of ordering countless human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, these promises are necessary and well-received by broad segments of the Syrian population.

Despite these promises, however, serious human rights violations continue to occur throughout the country. These violations have particularly taken place during security operations in Homs governorate. Even more worrisome is the fact that, in many cases, members of the new government’s General Security Directorate (which is largely comprised of members of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham) committed these violations. To live up to his promises of establishing a free and just Syria, the transitional government led by Al-Sharaa must respond to these violations and prevent them in the future.

Security Operations in Homs

In the past few weeks, SJAC documenters have reported that the security situation in Homs governorate has become particularly alarming. Since early January, the General Security has conducted multiple security campaigns in Homs city and rural areas of western Homs. During these campaigns, the General Security claims to have confiscated weapons and detained individuals deemed “remnants” of the Assad government, or members of the military and intelligence services or people affiliated with them.

These security operations have been accompanied by an array of rights violations as reported by local media and documenters. Victims of these violations include individuals previously affiliated with the Assad government but also civilians with no prior government involvement. Outlined below are two patterns of violations that occurred during recent security campaigns which SJAC finds to be especially concerning: 1) reported deaths of detainees in custody and 2) arrests of relatives of wanted persons.

The violations detailed below are not exhaustive. SJAC will provide a more comprehensive update of violations in the next iteration of its human rights map in late February/early March 2025.

Deaths of Detainees in Custody

In late January and early February 2025, SJAC documenters received reports of at least six individuals being killed in the custody of security forces. To verify claims that originated in media reports, SJAC documenters spoke with relatives of the deceased and/or residents of their villages who also had knowledge of the incidents and confirmed their occurrence.

In one of these cases, according to a local SJAC spoke to, the General Security in Homs ordered a young man named Louay Talal Tayyara to report to a “settlement center” in Homs city on January 29th to turn over a vehicle that belonged to the Baath Party. The man reportedly possessed the vehicle due to his mother, Hala Al-Atassi, being a former member of the Baath-affiliated Women’s Union. The young man complied with the request and reported to the center, but within a day, the family was told to come and receive Louay’s body. According to the source, the young man had been beaten to death.

A cousin of the deceased described the aftermath of the incident in a Facebook post, highlighting that a quick burial was ordered to avoid the “commotion” that would likely ensue if the public learned what had happened. In the post, the cousin held Ahmed Al-Sharaa and his security forces responsible for Louay’s death, noting how the events, and particularly the summons followed by death and hasty burial, mirrored many Syrians’ encounters with security forces during Assad’s rule.

The General Security Directorate in Homs later stated that they opened an investigation into the matter and arrested the individuals involved in Tayyara’s killing, and promised to release the results of the investigation to ensure maximum transparency. The statement also claimed that Tayyara was summoned due to being involved with the National Defense Forces and possessing unauthorized weapons, though a close friend and neighbor of the deceased adamantly denied any wrongdoing by Tayyara in a video he posted on Facebook. As of this article’s publication, the General Security has not released any updates on the investigation into Tayyara’s death.

SJAC also verified at least five other deaths of people who the General Security arrested during combing operations in Homs in late January. Some were known to be affiliated with the Assad government. In some of these cases, SJAC documenters received reports from relatives that the bodies bore signs of torture, which have been echoed in reports from media and civil society, but SJAC cannot independently verify these claims.

On January 30, locals from Al-Sharqliyya village reported to SJAC that relatives received the bodies of two men, Louay Ali Al-Jaber and Ghaith Youssef Baddou r, from the morgue of a hospital in Al-Waer. The General Security had reportedly arrested the two men during operations in the village between January 21 and 24. SJAC could not independently verify whether Al-Jaber and Baddour were civilians. On February 1 and 2, relatives of three other men were told to collect the bodies of their relatives from hospitals in Al-Waer. These men, Badr Muhi Suqour (policeman), Hikmat Younis Raslan (member of the State Security), and Mohammad Younis Mansour (police officer) had been arrested from Al-Kaneiseh village on January 22. The General Security reportedly arrested five other men from Al-Kaneiseh on the same day, but their whereabouts remain unknown.

Arrests of relatives of wanted persons

In addition to deaths of detainees in custody, SJAC documenters also verified two incidents in which members of the General Security detained civilians related to wanted Assad government affiliates in order to force the wanted individual to turn himself in. In the first instance in mid-January, security forces arrested two brothers from Homs city, Muhanna and Ali Ibrahim. SJAC’s documenter spoke with an individual close to the family, who shared that security forces arrested them to prompt a third brother, Yahya – who was allegedly affiliated with the Assad government – to turn himself into the authorities. Days after the arrest, one of the arrested brothers, Muhanna, was found dead in Homs city.

In another instance in Khirbet Al-Hamam village, SJAC verified that the General Security arrested Ali Qaylouh, the son of Kamal Qaylouh, who was wanted for involvement with Assad’s military security. Kamal later turned himself in, and Ali was released.

Not only are the arrests unjust, but detaining or threatening to harm relatives of wanted persons was a tactic frequently used by the Assad government’s security and intelligence forces. Al-Sharaa should urgently work to prevent use of this tactic by the General Security as he seeks to distinguish himself from the former government.

Recommendations:

The caretaker government and HTS leadership have acknowledged that violations have occurred, including those committed by its own General Security personnel, but maintained that they did not order or authorize these actions. While the transitional government’s leadership may not be sanctioning this behavior – it has, on more than one occasion, pr omise d to hold people accountable for these actions, the violations continue to occur. The transitional government led by Al-Sharaa has a responsibility to protect Syrian citizens by addressing these violations and preventing their occurrence in the future.

To this end, SJAC recommends the transitional government take the following actions:

Investigate deaths in detention that occurred in government custody and hold responsible personnel accountable by enforcing the Syrian penal code and criminal procedural code until a new lawmaking body can be established. The current government should also prevent future incidents by ensuring that arrests are not arbitrary and that conditions around arrest and detention are in accordance with domestic and international human rights standards.
- To ensure conditions and treatment of individuals in detention are lawful, the current government should also allow the ICRC access to detention facilities and facilitate communication and visits between detainees and their families. To facilitate this communication, the General Security should publish a list and location of detention of people who were arrested in the aforementioned security campaigns.
Prohibit General Security from arbitrarily arresting family members of former Assad affiliates to ensure that any arrests meet standards of due process. Moreover, decisions around future accountability efforts, including amnesties, should be part of the upcoming National Dialogue to encourage a participatory process with Syrian society.
While planning for and creating a formal process for justice and accountability of former Assad affiliates, the current government should issue clear and consistent communication about their efforts in order to reduce revenge killings and vigilante justice. When reprisal killings and acts of revenge do occur, the government should also investigate and prosecute those responsible to uphold the rule of law and facilitate trust in a future accountability process.

Further delay in meeting these demands will only serve to perpetuate the violations occurring in Homs and elsewhere in the country. Failure to address the deteriorating security situation will also undermine Al-Sharaa’s desire to appear a competent and just ruler to both the Syrian people and regional and global leaders.

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