Assad’s forces have arrested and charged a number of figures who had carried out settlements and reconciliations with the Assad regime.
A local source told Hurriya Press that a group of security men and police from the Assad regime in Telbeesa had informed Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Daheek and Sheikh Ahmed Jomaa, known as the “genie” — who had previously worked as sharia judges — of the security branch review and the criminal charges.
The same source said that both Ahmed Sowees, a commander in a rebel group who had participated in the reconciliations in northern Homs, and his brother Yassin Sowees were arrested, as was Jihad al-Towf, without prior warning or a clear crime. Their fates are still unknown.
Assad’s intelligence agencies brought together a number of defected officers from Rastan in the Officers Club in Homs and called them “traitors to the country” before taking them to Branch 293 in Damascus.
Assad’s forces have not complied with the terms of the agreement signed with the negotiations council in northern Homs with Russian guarantees, and have carried out arrest campaigns targeting civilians and militants who accepted the reconciliation, on the pretext that they carried out crimes.
Assad’s forces announced they’d taken control of the northern Homs and southern Hama countrysides in mid May after negotiations with Free Syrian Army groups that ended with the expulsion of those who rejected the settlement and their families to northern Syria.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
