DEIR EZ-ZOR, Syria (North Press) – After several failed attempts to escape brutal torture that lasted for two consecutive horrific years, 23-year-old Sarah al-Fadil, a resident of the town of al-Baghouz, 130 km east of Syria’s Deir ez-Zor, managed to escape with her child from the house of her 37-year-old husband Abdullah al-Shihab while he was asleep. Sarah went to the Internal Security Forces (Asayish) in the town of Hajin and filed a complaint against her husband.
Last Sunday, the Asayish in Hajin, east of Deir ez-Zor, arrested al-Shihab in one of the town’s neighborhoods, as the latter tried to hide after his wife and her child fled the house.
For two years, the husband carried out the cruelest physical and psychological torture against his wife and her child with metal implements, putting the child in the hospital, according to what the wife told North Press.
Four-year-old boy Youssef’s genitals were badly damaged and his left foot was temporarily paralyzed. His knees were also damaged due to the iron hammer his father used to beat him, according to Ahmed al-Hamid, a pediatrician at al-Hamza Hospital in Hajin, where the child receives treatment.
The visible marks of beating on the child’s body show to what extent he was tortured at the hands of his stepfather “using horrendous methods and sharp instruments of torture,” according to the doctor.
The child needs long term health care and perhaps many years to recover. His psychological condition is “very bad,” and he needs special care in order not to suffer from psychological complexes in the future.
According to a source from the Asayish, al-Shihab, after preliminary investigations with him, admitted that he tortured his wife and her child.
The full story
Two years ago, al-Fadil married al-Shihab, who comes from the city of Abu Kamal in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor, three years after the death of her first husband.
Before getting married, al-Shihab pledged to support and protect her and her child, who was two at the time. He also pledged to take care of her child as if he were his own son.
“But soon I found out that he took drugs and pills. He was nervous all the time, he used to shout, curse, and hit us all of a sudden,” she says.
A year after their marriage, the husband started beating his wife and torturing her child. He asked his wife not to take care of the child, because he reminded him of her dead husband.
The wife tried several times to escape from the house, but all her attempts were unsuccessful and led to further torture at the hands of her husband.
She added, “He used to chain my feet and hit my child in front of my eyes.” He would pull the child’s genitals with a string, pull out his nails, and hit him with an iron hammer, in addition to burning his body and pulling his hair out. “He put a cloth in his mouth to prevent him from screaming,” she added.
Last Monday, the People’s Council in the city of Hajin and its countryside issued a statement condemning the “criminal” act carried out by al-Shihab against his family.
The Council demanded that the most severe penalties be imposed against Abdullah al-Shihab for what he had done to his family.
What prevented al-Fadil from filing a complaint against her husband was that he would lock her up whenever he left the house, and none of her relatives would visit her because of their dissatisfaction with her marriage to al-Shihab due to his bad reputation.
Not long after her marriage, members of the al-Fadil family traveled to Lebanon, Turkey, and other regions, and only her uncles and other relatives remained, but they refused to visit her.
A member of ISIS
Even after escaping him, it is still difficult for al-Fadil to fathom the cruelty of her husband. al-Fadil says: “I cannot imagine that he could torture a child who couldn’t scream in pain because of a cloth put in his mouth.”
She added, “The moaning of my child and his eyes, whose tears never dried, were witnesses to the crime of my husband, as he would lose consciousness every time because of the severity of the beating.”
Ahmed al-Najm, one of al-Shihab’s neighbors, tried to rescue the mother and child or inform the Asayish after hearing their screams multiple times, “but his threats prevented me from telling anyone.”
Al-Shihab was a member of the Islamic State (ISIS), “and he has done many evil deeds,” according to al-Najm, who mentioned that his neighbor came to al-Baghouz to escape the revenge awaiting him and his brothers for killing two people in Abu Kamal years ago.
Al-Fadil says that her husband mistreated her after she refused requests from her husband, and the friends who took drugs with him at their home, which made her uncomfortable.
She mentioned that her husband asked her to dance seductively for him and his friends.
Zaid Zaid (a pseudonym), a young man from al-Baghouz, confirmed that he visited al-Shihab’s house and the latter asked him to smoke cannabis with him.
“He aimed his gun at me jokingly and asked me to smoke hashish with him, so I freaked out.”
The young man pointed out that the husband used to receive young teenagers at his home and offer them drugs and cannabis, “and he stole money from them after they had lost their focus because of the hashish.”
About a year ago, al-Shihab worked as a butcher, “but he then worked buying copper during the day to watch the neighborhood’s homes in order to rob them at night,” according to Zaid.