HTS executes two detainees for ‘working for US-led Coalition’
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – At the early hours of Monday, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front) executed two detainees after spending eight months in custody on charges of spying for the US-led Global Coalition.
An official working in one of HTS prisons told North Press on condition of anonymity, “The execution was carried out by firing squad in the Idlib Central Prison’s yard near the Sheikh Bahr town in western Idlib, without them being brought to trial or allowed to be visited during their entire period of detention.”
The detainees were Mortada al-Rashad, 42, and yazan Darboly, an IDP from Homs countryside, who had been arrested since last December following a raid on their houses in Idlib, the prison official added.
Earlier this month, HTS arrested three of its administrative and security leaders on charges of espionage for the International Coalition in the Wadi al-Nasim neighbourhood in Idlib city. This was part of a series of arrests that began in June.
At the time, informed sources told North Press that the General Security Apparatus of HTS, under orders from the Shura Council (the top of the HTS hierarchy), arrested the head of the Inspection and Security Control Office, as well as the head of the Diwan al-Nafous and the deputy chief investigator in the Criminal Security, along with five other members in the same offices, on charges of providing the US-led Coalition with classified information about HTS leaders and members.
Since the beginning of 2023, HTS has conducted 19 extrajudicial executions in Idlib, including at least two women, after they were arbitrarily detained and disappeared. Their families were not allowed to visit them or appoint lawyers for them.