Daesh commander faces German justice

FRANKFURT: When Daesh overran areas in eastern Syria inhabited by the Shaitat clan, the terrorist group committed unspeakable cruelties.

One of its commanders has now been arrested in Berlin and will face trial. A Syrian witness now living in Germany remembers him and what happened.

When protests against the Syrian regime began in 2011, many were full of hope. Hesham Ali — not his real name — was one of them.

The 40-year-old from the Abu Hamam area in the province of Deir El-Zor belongs to the Shaitat clan, which inhabits three villages. Before 2011 they numbered 180,000.

“We’re well-known and very proud of our roots,” Ali told Arab News. Having spent many years in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, he had returned to Syria in 2010.

He wrote anti-regime slogans on walls, believing that the courage of the people would lead to positive change.

Changes did indeed occur, but not in the way he had hoped. In the coming years, large parts of Iraq and Syria were plunged into chaos by Islamist groups, foremost among them Daesh.

Its former leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who was killed in an airstrike in 2019, declared a caliphate in July 2014. What followed was a nightmare from which the region is still struggling to recover.

To Ali, the likes of Daesh dashed all hope for positive change. “The revolution was about to be successful,” he said. “Then they came, took away people’s possessions and declared other people heathens.”  

The Sunni tribe refused to accept Daesh rule, but their resistance was unsuccessful: The province was overrun in August 2014.

Daesh was determined to set an example for anyone who would dare confront it, murdering 700-900 men, women, children and elders.

When Al-Baghdadi declared the caliphate, Ali — who was covering events in the area and publishing pictures and videos on social media — was arrested by Islamists and imprisoned.

After his release, he returned home and helped his wife and children escape across the Euphrates River.

Determined to cover the events, he returned home again — a move that almost cost him his life.

“When they saw a member of the Shaitat clan, they’d kill him,” Ali said. Daesh fighters then caught him.

A man put a knife to his throat. It was mere luck that Ali survived. “I told them I was a car salesman from somewhere else,” he said.

They put a bag over his head and drove him to a local prison, where they held him for weeks. The bag would become his fortune and misfortune at the same time.

“Having seen bodies of beheaded people in the streets, I knew that whenever they were taking away a prisoner, they’d cut his throat or head,” he said. “But since I was bagged, I couldn’t see them do it with my own eyes.”

Although his life was hanging by a thread, Ali survived and was released. He managed to rejoin his family and flee the country. In 2015, he settled with them in Germany.

Last week, authorities arrested a man in Berlin known as Raed E, an alleged former Daesh commander. Ali remembers him.

“I saw him from a distance in Abu Hamam but I didn’t know him personally,” he said, adding that being a member of the Shaitat clan himself, Raed E has relatives among its elite.

It was three years ago that relatives of Ali recognized Raed E in Berlin and consulted Ali on what they should do.

He and his relatives informed the authorities, who issued a warrant against Raed E. He fled to Turkey, but when he felt safe he returned to Berlin and was subsequently arrested.

Raed E is not the first of his kind to face trial in Germany. Since 2014, the authorities have accused over 50 people of crimes in connection with Daesh.

Ali has full trust in Germany’s courts: “Raed E will get a life sentence, the worst punishment there is in this country.”

But returning home anytime soon seems virtually impossible. Due to his activities, Ali is known on social media and fears being identified. “With sleeper cells still active there, I can’t go back.”