Multiple sources confirmed the arrest of Syria’s former Grand Mufti, Sheikh Ahmad Badr al-Din Hassoun, on Wednesday at Damascus International Airport by General Security forces. The former regime cleric was reportedly detained while attempting to leave the country for Jordan, where he was scheduled to undergo surgery in Amman.
According to eyewitness accounts, Hassoun had already cleared passport control when a security team stormed the area, arrested him, and transferred him to an undisclosed location. A photo of him blindfolded circulated widely on social media following the incident.
Lebanese media figure Rafic Lutfallah, a staunch supporter of the former Assad regime, released a video claiming Hassoun had been taken to the Kafr Sousa district in Damascus. Lutfallah also alleged that the mufti’s travel plans had been approved by Syrian authorities, though no official statement has yet confirmed the arrest.
A warrant, dated March 26 and purportedly signed by the public prosecutor, was also shared online. It orders the arrest and transfer of Hassoun, accusing him of fleeing justice after being named in a formal complaint.
Hassoun, a known loyalist of former president Bashar al-Assad, has been a controversial figure for years. He was last seen in Aleppo about a month ago, where his public appearance sparked protests. In one widely shared video, he was followed by a crowd through the streets to his home, attempting to conceal his identity with a scarf. In another video filmed inside his house, he is confronted by a protester who calls him the “Mufti of barrel bombs”—a reference to his support for the regime’s violent military campaigns. Hassoun responds: “I am Dr. Ahmad Hassoun, and I have been arrested three times.”
Protests around his home included chants such as “The people want Hassoun to fall,” and footage showed demonstrators breaking into the property.
Born in 1949, Hassoun served as Grand Mufti from 2005 until 2021, when Bashar al-Assad abolished the position. He holds a PhD in Islamic jurisprudence and a degree in Arabic literature, and previously taught at the Islamic Studies University in Syria. He was a visible regime figure at religious events and consistently aligned himself with Assad’s narrative, calling the 2011 uprising a foreign conspiracy. His controversial fatwas during the war included justifying the shelling of opposition-held areas and defending Russian and Iranian intervention as “support,” not “colonialism.”
In October 2011, his 22-year-old son, Sariya, was killed in an ambush between Idlib and Aleppo. Declassified intelligence archives revealed after the regime’s fall in December 2024 indicate that regime security forces may have orchestrated the assassination.
This article was translated and 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.
