Amjad Youssef one of most-wanted fugitives in relation to slaughter of almost 290 civilians under Assad
A Syrian former regime official suspected of leading a notorious civilian massacre revealed by the Guardian – and who became one of the country’s most-wanted fugitives after the fall of Bashar al-Assad – has been arrested by security forces, Syria’s interior ministry announced.
Amjad Youssef was captured in the countryside about 30 miles (50km) outside the city of Hama and had “been taken into custody following a carefully executed security operation”, the interior minister, Anas Khattab, said in a social media post on Friday.
Mugshots released by the ministry showed Youssef in a striped prison uniform, while videos circulated on social media showing the former military intelligence officer in custody in a vehicle, his face bloodied, being sworn at and slapped by uniformed men.
Youssef is one of the most prominent suspects in what has become known as the Tadamon massacre, the slaughter of an estimated 288 civilians, including 12 children, in a southern Damascus neighbourhood in 2013. It was documented in a series of videos taken by the killers themselves and leaked to researchers in Europe, excerpts of which were published by the Guardian in 2022.
