Inside the deserted houses of Assad’s enforcers

Jamil Hassan, probably the most feared males in Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime, wished for the torture and killing of civilians, was shaking as he walked down the steps of his house block.

Outside, the 72-year-old climbed right into a automobile in a small convoy along with his household and a handful of safety guards, only a few suitcases between them.

His neighbour and her teenage son watched.

“I knew the second I noticed them flee that Assad had fallen,” she says.

When we entered Hassan’s house just a few days later, indicators of the household’s hasty departure had been in every single place.

In the fridge was a half-eaten carrot cake with a knife nonetheless on the plate. The beds had been strewn with garments and empty shoeboxes. Flowers wilted in a vase within the eating room, and cups and plates had been left to dry by the sink.

A framed picture of a smiling Hassan and Assad held on the wall of the examine, with textual content studying: “Our skies are for us and forbidden to others”.

Hassan, known as “the butcher” by many civilians on his avenue, was certainly one of Assad’s most menacing enforcers. He led the Air Force Intelligence and oversaw a community of detention services together with the infamous Mezzeh Prison, the place detainees had been routinely tortured.

He is certainly one of many senior regime figures wished or sanctioned all over the world who’ve deserted their houses in prosperous areas of Damascus and vanished.

Finding these males who dominated Syria with an iron fist will likely be troublesome. Some concern they’ll strike political offers overseas and evade justice.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the marketing campaign to topple the regime, has vowed to seek for them inside Syria. Rebels aligned with the group now occupy Hassan’s house and a handwritten notice on the entrance door warns individuals to not enter.

When we requested them the place Hassan might need gone, one grinned and replied: “I do not know – to Hell.”

Many house shutters on Hassan’s quiet avenue in central Damascus at the moment are closed. Knocks on doorways go unanswered.

Those who will communicate inform us about their concern at dwelling on a avenue with a wished struggle prison. “We had been so afraid to speak,” says the lady who watched him flee. “It was terrifying to dwell subsequent to them.”

Hassan is needed within the US for “participating in conspiracy to commit merciless and inhuman therapy of civilian detainees, together with US residents”. He was convicted in absentia earlier this 12 months in France for his function in imprisoning, disappearing and torturing two Syrian-French nationals. Germany needs him too. An Interpol Red Notice reveals {a photograph} of Hassan alongside a notice that he’s wished for “conspiracy to commit struggle crimes”.

He was positioned beneath journey bans and had his property frozen over the repression of civilian protesters. In April 2011 the US says Air Force Intelligence personnel fired tear gasoline and dwell ammunition at protesting crowds in Damascus and different cities, killing no less than 43.

People on the road describe a formidable determine who was unapproachable and at all times surrounded by guards.

A makeshift safety put up exterior Hassan’s house constructing was always staffed by army personnel. The night time earlier than the regime collapsed, the lads merely took off their uniforms and discarded their weapons, in accordance with one other neighbour.

“It was the primary time I’d seen this put up with no lights, no sounds, no noise,” says 27-year-old Amr al-Bakri, a filmmaker who lives along with his household within the constructing subsequent door.

He mentioned locals “knew what he did to the Syrians – exterior of Damascus and in Damascus – so we all know it however we won’t say something, simply ‘good morning sir’. He’d say nothing again.”

Amr says his household needed to give away their pet canine after Hassan’s guards threatened to kill it if it did not cease barking. When Amr’s household requested for the guard put up to be moved from exterior their residence, they had been informed they need to transfer home as a substitute, he says.

The guards would run common inspections on the road and examine the baggage of holiday makers.

“Sometimes if I had a plumber or handyman to come back and repair one thing one of many guards would come and examine if there was actually one thing that wanted to be fastened,” says the lady dwelling in Hassan’s constructing.

Neighbours additionally say Hassan had a “golden line” for electrical energy that meant his household’s lights had been at all times on, whereas different houses within the neighbourhood had been in darkness.

The electrician known as to repair any issues on the house says he knew Hassan over a few years “however solely from a distance”. “[Hassan] was very strict – a army persona,” the person says. “He was a butcher… He had no mercy.”

The man informed BBC News he had been in jail – not at Mezzeh however elsewhere – and was tortured there.

A neighborhood shopkeeper, Mohammed Naoura, says he did not like Hassan however that you just needed to seem to assist him.

“We are glad now,” he provides. “Nobody believed this could ever occur.”

Hussam Luka, head of the General Security Directorate (GSD), was much less well-known amongst residents however had an house beneath Hassan.

His “ruthless, smooth-talking nature” reportedly earned him the nickname “the spider” – and he is beneath sanctions within the EU, US and UK.

A UK sanctions listing says he was “answerable for the torture of opponents in custody”, whereas the US Treasury Department says he “reportedly dedicated a variety of massacres” whereas working in Homs.

The White House has mentioned he’s certainly one of a small group of officers who might need details about lacking American journalist Austin Tice.

At his residence on Monday, rebels had been dismantling furnishings to be put into storage. They mentioned they arrived after looters had already taken lots of the costliest gadgets.

A photograph of Luka and Assad remained, printed in several sizes and types, alongside paperwork from safety and intelligence occasions, and ceremonial medals and certificates from the international spy service in Russia – the place the deposed Syrian chief Assad has fled.

“This award is to the coordinator of the mukhabarat [intelligence service] organ within the southern provinces of the Syrian Arab Republic,” one certificates naming Luka says. “You confirmed the utmost professionalism and put in large effort to fulfil the duties entrusted to you for the nice of the Syrian individuals.”

As rebels clear the house, a neighbour wanders in to see what’s occurring.

When requested what she is aware of in regards to the regime official, she replies: “We hold to ourselves, they hold to themselves. No one on this constructing interacts with one another.” She walks away.

In different prosperous areas extra houses have been deserted. Fridges are totally stocked, wardrobes full and in some circumstances journey paperwork left behind.

The rebels who’ve taken over the houses are utilizing them as bases, and say they’re additionally stopping additional looting.

At one lavish house, males say they’re sleeping on blankets on marble flooring beneath large chandeliers and cooking on a camp range in its fashionable kitchen. Guns are propped towards plush sofas and arm chairs.

“We do not want any of this,” a insurgent says, gesticulating across the room.

At one other, a toddler peaks by means of the curtain of a sprawling ground-floor house with an outside swimming pool. A big household say they’re occupying the house.

Perhaps the grandest residence within the space is the fashionable labyrinthine underground dwelling of one of many nation’s best-known businessmen – Khodr Taher Bin Ali, higher often called Abu Ali Khodr.

Bin Ali has been sanctioned by the US, UK and EU for his function in supporting and benefiting from the Syrian regime.

His residence has a carry, a full-size gymnasium, an indoor swimming pool, scorching tub and sauna, and an industrial kitchen.

In the master suite, there are two golden safes, with house for dozens of watches – in a drawer there’s a forgotten guarantee card for luxurious model Audemars Piguet. A gun case and jewelry bins within the wardrobe are empty.

The youngsters’s ensuite bedrooms nonetheless have toys and a Louis Vuitton purse on the ground and homework and faculty experiences are within the cabinets. A Quran rests on a piece prime with the phrases “A present from the president Bashar al-Assad” inscribed on the aspect.

Around the nook from Bin Ali is the house of Ali Mamlouk, certainly one of Assad’s closest associates and among the many most senior and infamous members of the regime. He was reportedly given the nickname “black field” due to his management over delicate info.

He was sentenced alongside Hassan by French judges this 12 months for struggle crimes, and can be wished in Lebanon for 2 explosions in 2012 within the metropolis of Tripoli that killed and wounded dozens.

Like Luka, the White House believes Mamlouk is certainly one of few males who may have details about Tice.

His house is padlocked shut, and rebels are extra reluctant to grant entry there.

In a guard sales space exterior, there are notes on guests to the property earlier than Assad’s fall – individuals delivering sweets, water and greens, and coming to repair the electrical energy.

“No one may see, nobody may stroll, nobody may go by this space. It’s truly the primary time I’m seeing this place from up shut,” says 17-year-old Mo Rasmi Taftaf, whose household personal a home close by.

“Whenever he got here in or out, guards would minimize the roads off,” one neighbour says.

Shouting down from a second-floor balcony, one other gestures in direction of Mamlouk’s massive residence when requested in regards to the wished regime determine.

“It felt like there was an odd ambiance” on the road the night time earlier than information broke that Assad had fled, he says, with out elaborating.

“His safety was right here on the time however I noticed them depart on Sunday morning – plenty of vehicles. Ali Mamlouk wasn’t right here,” he provides, earlier than returning inside.

Another man, who declines to present his title, says he does not need to discuss in regards to the regime males.

“I simply need to dwell in peace. I do not need to open this e-book or discover all of those crimes – there could be plenty of blood.”

Many, although, do need justice.

The chief of HTS has vowed to pursue the senior regime figures in Syria and requested different international locations at hand over those that fled. Those wished elsewhere have restricted locations to run.

Finding the lads will likely be a problem.

“While there isn’t a confirmed info on the present whereabouts of senior regime figures like Jamil Hassan, Ali Mamlouk, and others, there are considerations that such people may gain advantage from political offers that allow them to evade justice,” the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) tells the BBC.

“Some are more likely to have sought refuge in allied international locations, complicating future extradition efforts, whereas others should still be in Syria, dwelling discreetly.”

On Hassan’s avenue, neighbours speculate about the place the vanished struggle prison has gone.

His household left few clues within the house. But within the workplace is a certificates for Hassan’s daughter signed by Hassan Nasrallah, the late chief of Lebanon-based Shia militant group Hezbollah, thanking her for her “assist and assist for this honourable resistance”.

Several neighbours counsel he could also be hiding in Lebanon or has transited by means of there, whereas the native shopkeeper says he thinks Hassan headed for the coast, maybe to Latakia within the north – the heartland of the minority Alawite sect to which Assad and lots of of his closest allies belong.

Meanwhile, Lebanese newspaper Nida al-Watan experiences that Mamlouk was smuggled throughout the border and into the Lebanese capital Beirut by Hezbollah – a long-time ally of Syria’s Ba’ath authorities.

Hezbollah has not confirmed providing help to any regime figures, and the Lebanese authorities has mentioned no Syrian officers focused by worldwide warrants had been authorised to enter by means of authorized crossings. Lebanese safety providers say Mamlouk just isn’t within the nation.

Syrian-British barrister Ibrahim Olabi says regime officers might have acquired new identities and passports, as they had been highly effective individuals backed by state establishments.

When it involves getting justice, he provides, an absence of proof just isn’t the issue. It is extra about discovering them and getting them to a spot the place they are often held accountable.

The SCM says doing this can “require appreciable assets, sustained political will, and worldwide collaboration”.

Failing to take action will ship a “harmful message that crimes, together with struggle crimes and crimes towards humanity, can go unpunished”, it provides.

Ibrahim Olabi says he’s hopeful that justice will likely be served.

“It will completely be a hunt,” he says, however “the world now could be a small place by means of social media, personal investigators, political leverages”.

Hassan’s neighbours who had been keen to speak say they hope he’ll in the future be returned to Syria, distant from their avenue, to be punished.