“Abdul Qader al-Hakim, a member of the Islamist faction Jaish al-Ahrar, had been detained ten months earlier by HTS. Following pressure from his group, HTS revealed where his body was buried in western Idlib, Fadel Abdul Ghany, the director of the United Kingdom (UK)-based Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said. “The faction led a military convoy there, extracted the man’s decomposing body and took it to his family’s house.”
Abdul Ghany said protestors have been attacked on several occasions, sometimes by armed forces dressed in civilian clothing, who appear in some videos circulating on Friday. “Security groups harass and beat people and target their cars,” he said. “We’ve also noticed media workers being targeted.”
While protests have been largely led by peaceful civil society groups, some have been infiltrated by groups with their own aims. “The anti-HTS movement is disorganized… This made it easier for [Hizb al-Tahrir] to enter the movement with its own agenda,” Abdul Ghany said. “Things have also been escalated by former HTS government officials, perhaps for personal gain.”
“The authorities have resorted to circumventing the protestors’ demands,” Abdul Ghany of SNHR said. “They released detainees convicted of criminal cases, but didn’t release anyone related to the movement.” He said that HTS also released many members of Hizb al-Tahrir.”
