https://arab.news/pfqek
- Akram Selum Abdullah detained in Damascus countryside
- Ex-military police commander ‘responsible for executions,’ Interior Ministry says
LONDON: Syrian authorities this week arrested a former military official accused of executing detainees at Saydnaya prison during the regime of Bashar Assad, the Sana news agency reported.
Akram Selum Abdullah, who was a major general during the Assad era, was captured by personnel from the counterterrorism branch in the Damascus countryside, the Ministry of Interior said.
Abdullah was commander of the military police at the Ministry of Defense from 2014 to 2015, a force accused of committing serious violations against detainees in Sednaya prison, a facility near Damascus that was run by the ministry.
The ministry accused Abdullah of being “directly responsible for carrying out the executions of detainees inside Saydnaya military prison … during his tenure as commander of the military police,” the report said.
Amnesty International has described the prison as a “human slaughterhouse,” where an estimated 30,000 people were detained since 2011. Of those, only about 6,000 have been released, with rest still missing.