The militant group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham has freed Zaman al-Wasl’s reporter in northern Aleppo province, a week after his arbitrary arrest.
Members of the former Syrian offshoot of al-Qaeda arrested Juma’a Haj Hamdo from his house last Wednesday in the western countryside of Aleppo and took him to an unknown destination.
Fathi Ibrahim Bayoud, the Editor-in-Chief of Zaman al-Wasl said that Hamdo was arrested for his coverage of the suffering of people in Tahrir al-Sham-held areas.
Hamdo’s arrest is the latest attempt by those who seek to silence free speech and revolutionary journalism, he added.
For over 15 years, Juma’a has been working as a reporter and photojournalist, for seven of those years he has been covering the war and the people’s suffering for Zaman al-Wasl.
He was detained in 2011 by the regime security for his pro-revolution media activities.
Like the Islamic State, Tahrir al-Sham wants to create an Islamic state of its own. This ambition makes the whole region under its control in northwestern Syria a fertile ground for mounting violations and abuses.
Formerly-known as Jabhat al-Nusra, the group has detained and killed most of its opponents including citizen journalists and human rights advocates.
Raed al-Fares and Hamoud Junaid, two pro-democracy Syrian activists and citizen journalists, were shot dead by Tahrir al-Sham last November in the village of Kafrabel in northern Idleb province.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), since May 2018, Tahrir al-Sham has detained at least two journalists in northwestern Syria.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
