By Zana al-Ali/Ahmad Othman
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – “Where is he?” this question has been floating around with numerous rumors. The circumstances of tracing Italian Jesuit priest and peace activist, Paolo Dall’Oglio, made the searching process like finding a “needle in the haystack,” particularly, after a back-to-back changing of rulers at the same spot leaving no starting point for searching and explaining the different stories of him.
This investigation delves into the circumstances surrounding the incident of the missing Dall’Oglio and those who are accused of his kidnapping. For two years straight, the investigators worked relentlessly on suspected people.
01:15
“At 9 am, Father Paolo told me he was willing to meet high-ranked ISIS leaders in the governorate building of Raqqa,” said Khalaf al-Ghazi, remembering the morning when Dall’Oglio went missing nine years ago.
Al-Ghazi could not help himself after hearing that and asked about the reason of this decision to visit the extremist group. He said:
“He wanted to tell ISIS a three-item message that included: I am not opposed to establish the Islamic Caliphate, nor prophet Muhammad, but I recommend you not to fight the Kurds because that can be in conducive with the Syrian government forces.”
The Italian priest had served in Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian in Rif Dimashq, the place he turned into an interreligious dialogue center before his exile from Syria following his outreaching with the Syrian opposition militants and criticizing the Syrian government attitude regarding the suppression of the protests.
At 1 pm, Dall’Oglio stepped in front of the governorate building, the huge unique building, then to get back to al-Sa’a Roundabout that is close to the building.
No one knew where the priest was heading, but al-Ghazi said “he was coming to me, but a military vehicle of ISIS pulled over next to the northern side of al-Sa’a Roundabout and four masked men arrested the priest whose life has been changed from that moment on.
Al-Ghazi rushed to the building where the priest was abducted and met Kassab al-Jazrawi, “leader of al-Karama District” in Raqqa, who denied any knowledge of the incident of Dall’Oglio there.
March 4, 2013
March 4, 2013, at the same year of the priest’s incident, media were in abuzz with the event of falling the first governorate out of the Syrian government control by the Syrian opposition militants, and activists published a video shows an Islamist leader sitting between Hassan Jalali, Governor of Raqqa at the time, and Suleiman Suleiman, Secretary of al-Ba’ath party in Raqqa, .
The Islamist leader is called Samer Ma’youf al-Moteran. He was an anesthesiologist before the Syrian conflict. He, along with Adnan Sobhy al-Ersan, an orthopedist, and another man called Abu al-Nashmi founded al-Wahda wa Tahrir Front faction.
Abdullah al-Aryan, a lawyer from Raqqa, said the governorate building was under the control of al-Moteran’s faction when the priest was kidnapped, a time marks the beginning of the public appearance of the Islamic State group (ISIS). Sources say that al-Moteran had pledged allegiance to ISIS secretly before ISIS declaration.
Al-Aryan has a social relationship al-Moteran, the chief official of the governorate building in the period of kidnapping the priest. Once, he asked about the fate of Dall’Oglio.
“I asked him ‘what did you do with the priest,’ Samir avoided giving any piece of information whether the priest was dead or alive and emphasized that he handed the priest over ‘after he had come to us by his feet,’ according to al-Moteran,” al-Aryan said.
Days after the kidnapping of Paolo Dall’Oglio, ISIS detonated a car bomb targeting a meeting of Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades, making a new beginning of exterminating other factions. All accused al-Moteran of planning for the explosion and leaving the governorate building. Sources say that Adnan al-Ersan has reached Sweden, and that Abu al-Nashmi is now in the government-held areas after he stole huge amounts of money with al-Aryan.
Samer Ma’youf al-Moteran is now jailed in a prison run by the Syrian democratic forces (SDF) as he handed himself in 2017. Therefore, our two correspondents managed to meet him and asked him about the fate of the priest.
50
Eight months after kidnapping of priest Dall’Oglio and ISIS’ control of Raqqa, the doorbell of Khalaf al-Ghazi’s house was rang late at night, saying “We are ISIS. We want your son Issa to ask him some questions and we will bring him back very soon.” However, Issa is still in an unknown fate, as they did not bring him back.
Four months after that night, al-Ghazi, an engineer, met a Jordanian ISIS leader who told him that his son is jailed in a secret prison in Raqqa with a group of prisoners, and that they called “the fifty-man group of Father Paolo”. Their fate is in the hands of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the high rank leaders.
The engineer’s missing son did not leave his soul for a second, but someone called Abu Anas al-Iraqi, former officer in the Iraqi Army and an official at ISIS “Outpost 11”, one of the most important detention centers of ISIS in Raqqa, told him that his son was with the priest in another place.
Al-Ghazi has not forgotten the scares in the face of the Iraqi when he told him that his son was taken to Mosul University without any further details.
Despite the absence of any evidence that may prove that both the priest and Issa are still alive, al-Ghazi has deep belief that priest Paolo still alive because the Vatican and seven European countries keep claiming him. Add to this, Washington has announced a cash bounty of five millions dollars for any person who provides information related to Dall’Oglio’s whereabouts.
Yes, yes, yes .. I have no idea!!!
After many attempts, the correspondents managed to obtain a permission to meet Samer Ma’youf al-Moteran, who is detained at an SDF-run prison, and made an interview with him. Al-Moteran was first leader of al-Wahda wa Tahrir Front faction, but later he joined ISIS and now he is on the terrorist list.
Al-Moteran, who refused to speak in front of the camera, did not deny his affiliation to ISIS but denied his involving in any operations or attacks with the group in Kobani, Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), or Hasakah.
The dialogue with him was as following:
North Press: You were leader of al-Wahda wa Tahrir Front faction?
Al-Moteran: Yes
North Press: You were controlling the governorate building?
Al-Moteran: Yes
North Press: You were controlling the governor’s palace?
Al-Moteran: Yes
However, when asked about the priest, he denied the testimonies of the eyewitnesses and said: “When Father Paolo disappeared, we (al-Wahda wa Tahrir Front) were in the governor’s palace west of Rashid Park in the city center. We were not in the governorate building.”
Al-Moteran said that al-Nusra Front was the party that arrested Dall’Oglio and that Abu Saad al-Hadrami, who was always masked at the time, was the leader. He met him only once, as he put it.
In contrary, the map of control in Raqqa shows that al-Nusra Front was in the suburbs and took the municipality building as a headquarters and the brick factory as a command center.
Our correspondents showed al-Moteran a video footage when he took control over the governorate building and arrested the mayor and the secretary of al-Ba’ath party in Raqqa.
Al-Motairan said “When al-Nusra controlled the city, they forcibly took them from us, and I am not responsible for that.”
Because of the similarity of the fate, our correspondents contacted Ma’abad Suleiman, the eldest son of Suleiman Suleiman, secretary of al-Ba’ath party in Raqqa, hoping to obtain any evidence of priest Paolo.
Suleiman said al-Moteran is responsible for the arrest of his father and once told him that the matter came out of his hand. After several attempts and mediations, the son managed to communicate with Abu Saad al-Hadrami, who confirmed taking them to Abu Muhammad al-Julani, leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, (HTS, formerly Al-Nusra Front) at the request of the latter, passing through Saqr Quraish School in Kasrat south of Raqqa, and the silos of al-Salhabiya, west of Raqqa and the Euphrates Dam.
In the presence of al-Julani’s representative, the governor and the secretary of al-Baath in the city, they were transferred, accompanied by Abu Saad, who did not know the place because he was blindfolded, he said, he guessed that “the soil and geography of the area point to the countryside of Idlib.”
A Supper for fish
After full controlling of ISIS over Raqqa, the group issued death sentence on lawyers, but after a mediation from the local tribesmen, the sentence was reduced to impose a course of repentance, a course that ISIS considers “a return to religion and erase sins”. Al-Aryan was among those who involved in the course in 2015.
Abu Ali, a notorious security officer in ISIS, lectured them. One day, al-Aryan asked him about the priest after presenting long introductions, “We made him a fish supper,” Abu Ali replied, meaning that they killed him and threw him into the Euphrates River.
“We made him a fish supper,” meaning that they killed him and threw him into the Euphrates River.
The lawyer illustrated the reasons of killing him in throwing him into the river as Christians are considered “dirty and infidel” and must not be buried, so they threw him into the river, as he claimed.
There are four known sites where ISIS buried those it considered “infidels and impurities”: al-Hota pit in the town of Suluk, north of Raqqa, Sahlat al-Banat, northeast of Raqqa, a site 8 km south of Raqqa in the Shamiya desert, and the Euphrates River, according to the lawyer.
Al-Aryan concludes that “Al-Moteran confirmed to me that he had handed over Father Paolo to ISIS, and Abu Ali al-Sharqi confirmed to me that he had been killed.”
Al-Aryan considers that handing Father Paolo to ISIS by al-Moteran as way to win ISIS approval as the group was the strongest organization at the time, particularly after the elimination the other factions. He gave the governorate building, that symbolizes the rule of Raqqa, as a gift. Al-Aryan hints that al-Moteran was courting the strongest, where he handed over the governorate and the secretary of al-Baath party to al-Nusra Front, and then, he handed over the priest.
Summary
The issue of the Italian priest, Paolo Dall’Oglio, seems to have no end so far, furthermore, the death of many ISIS leaders, who may have information contributed in abducting him, has complicated the searching mission and made it almost impossible.