Syrian exile tells of heartbreaking search for wife who vanished a decade ago

When Bashar Al Assad fled last year, former political prisoner Yassin El Hajj Saleh, 64, was a man who had lost everything to the twists of Syrian politics. Year after year in the 1980s, he refused to compromise with the regime, and spent 16 years as a prisoner of conscience as a result. In 2013, two years after the uprising against President Assad's regime, his wife and three colleagues went missing. After decades of resistance and loss, he feels a measure of vindication, but only in part. Following 11 years in exile, he was able to return to Syria in January to lodge a complaint over his wife's disappearance and participate in public debates that would have been impossible weeks earlier. What happens to his legal petition and those of many others is a test the new regime in Damascus has not yet fully addressed. Like millions of Syrians, he has lived for years without knowing what happened to relatives who disappeared at the hands of the former Syrian regime or paramilitary groups. Will he finally get answers? "It's unpredictable," he told The National , speaking from Beirut. "Things are moving fast in Syria." That is far from an understatement. Interim President Ahmad Al Shara stunned the world on Wednesday when, at a meeting in Riyadh, US President Donald Trump announced the lifting of US sanctions on Syria, just six months after the US lifted a bounty of $10 million on the Syrian leader's head. On Saturday, Syria announced the formation of a national commission for missing persons and another commission for transitional justice for victims of atrocities committed under Mr Al Assad. Both bodies will have "financial and administrative independence" and act over all of Syrian territory, according to the presidency. In Paris, where the first European trial involving an alleged Syrian war criminal is taking place since the fall of the Assad regime, Mr El Hajj Saleh may find a glimpse of the truth. The trial of Syrian Majdi Nema, former spokesman of the rebel group Jaish Al Islam, opened on April 29. In France, this is the second trial concerning war crimes committed in Syria. Mr Nema, 36, was initially arrested in 2020 in France over the 2013 disappearance of Mr El Hajj Saleh's wife Samira Khalil and three colleagues – Razan Zaitouneh , Wael Hammadeh and Nazem Hammadi. Together, they are known as the "Douma Four" because they were kidnapped in the city of Douma, near Damascus. They had fled there because it was an area outside of the Assad regime's control. In the Syrian capital, they had lived in hiding due to their support of anti-government protesters following a 2011 uprising that later morphed into civil war. Their fate has been the subject of numerous investigative articles, books and films. Charges linking Mr Nema to the Douma Four were dropped in 2023, largely for procedural reasons. He was not in Douma when they were kidnapped. He had moved to Turkey, where he was based from then on. Yet evidence points at Jaish Al Islam orchestrating their disappearance. The group has always denied this accusation. When questioned by journalists, during his time as a spokesperson, Mr Nema echoed this claim. Today, he risks 20 years in prison. He is accused of complicity in war crimes committed by Jaish Al Islam , including enrolling teenagers to fight for the group. So far, his trial has shed light on the uphill battle faced by Syrian authorities should a similar exercise ever take place in Syria. One witness, who was scheduled to testify in a closed hearing, pulled out at the last minute on Wednesday out of fear for their safety because Mr Nema and his counsel would have been able to see their face, according to the judge. More witnesses are expected to speak in the coming weeks. Prosecutors have alleged recent political events in the country have heavily influenced the course of the trial. Half the witnesses pulled out, citing fears of reprisal against their families in Syria at the hands of the new authorities or their supporters. The lawyers said the root of the development lay with Nema's past links to Jaish Al Islam, which is part of the Al Shara-led administration. Prosecutors and the defence have argued heatedly over whether the trial should take place in France, a former colonial power, or Syria, finally free of 54 years of Assad rule yet rocked with sectarian killings and struggling to rebuild. Western expectations are high and in some cases unrealistic. Mr Trump said he wants Syria to normalise relations with Israel despite territorial incursions and unprovoked air strikes that have angered public opinion. French President Emmanuel Macron, who recently received Mr Al Shara in Paris , told him he wants an independent Syrian judiciary that would pursue killers whatever their political loyalty. That includes Islamist groups with links to the new government that recently perpetrated massacres against the Alawite minority. It will be hard, warned Mr El Hajj Saleh. "It would be good for [Al Shara] and for the whole country if he can weaken extremists," he said. "I am not sure he can do it. It's a fine equilibrium. If he weakens them too much, he'll lose some of his tools. If he doesn't, he loses credibility." Mr El Hajj Saleh's insights on justice in Syria are unique due to his courage and historic refusal to compromise with either Assad father or son or with Islamists during the civil war. He is one of the last representatives of the older generation of secular anti-regime activists, after the death of Riad Al Turk last year at age 93. The trial may yet be an opportunity for truth, Mr El Hajj Saleh hopes, both for Syrian victims, who can tell their stories, and for Mr Nema to say what he knows about the disappeared. The latter risks little if he speaks since charges were dropped. "It is useful," Mr El Hajj Saleh said, "to enable some Syrians to tell their stories, to give their testimonies." Writing in the New York Review of Books after his trip to Syria in January, Mr El Hajj Saleh described his feelings over the enduring absence of the disappeared that loomed over celebrations of the fall of the Assad regime . The article is wrote in the form of a letter to his wife. "Thousands have been released from Assad’s horrific prisons, but as long as your absence continues, a part of Syria will not be liberated," wrote Mr El Hajj Saleh. "This concerns not only you and me, or your partners in absence, but tens of thousands of others, over 113,000 people whose fate is unknown, according to the most reliable human rights sources." It is likely that Mr Nema was not involved in the kidnapping of the Douma Four but was later told what happened to them, Mr El Hajj Saleh said. The group's then leader, Zahran Alloush , also appears to have not been aware of their kidnapping, which was probably orchestrated by a handful of members that had launched a hate campaign against the victims. Mr Nema was a close friend of Alloush, who died in 2015. His nom de guerre, Islam Alloush, mirrored his boss' name. "Jaish Al Islam are corrupt. They killed many people. And of course, they abducted my wife and my friends. Most probably, they killed them, and we don't know where they put their bodies," Mr El Hajj Saleh said. "Majdi Nema could well be a nobody and it's probable he wasn't involved in the crime itself. But most probably, he knows. After a month, two months, he would know what is [happened]. These are not waterproof organisations," he added. In an article published after Mr Nema's arrest in France, Mr El Hajj Saleh had described him as "insignificant," which has been used by his defence to minimise his role in Jaish Al Islam. "I was trying to be fair, even though he is my enemy," Mr El Hajj Saleh said. "He was defending this organisation [Jaish Al Islam]. He was an important member. He was the speaker. So, of course he is responsible for their crimes." Mr El Hajj Saleh likely evaded the fate of his wife and colleagues because he had left a few weeks before their kidnapping to make the dangerous 500km trip to the eastern city of Raqqa, at the time under ISIS control, in search of his disappeared brothers. He then travelled onwards to Turkey and Germany , where he settled. "I blame myself," he said. "I might have seen the danger of Jaish Al Islam coming. I may have avoided the worst." The disappearance of the four activists came to symbolise the Syrian's revolution turn from peaceful anti-Assad protests to a civil war pitting Islamist factions against the regime. Ms Zaitouneh, who had received many prestigious awards for her defence of human rights as a lawyer, had a particularly high profile. Court documents seen by The National allege that Mr Nema was aware of their disappearance, though it remains unclear to what level he was informed of its details. During hearings in court, Mr Nema said that Ms Zaitouneh had defended his brother while he was imprisoned in the infamous Sednaya prison between 2006 and 2011. Asked if she had been able to help his brother, Mr Nema, said she could not because Syria was a police state, with a corrupt and arbitrary judiciary. "It's true that she did not do much, but in Syria, it's already a big thing that lawyers try to defend them, they can relay information and intimidate the judge," Mr Nema said. Information found on his phone also shows that he discussed the case of the Douma Four with various people. In one undated phone call, he is asked if he knew that Ms Zaitouneh was imprisoned. "Didn't you know?" he answers. The person then says they are dismayed by the news. "Sheikh, if only you knew how many [blood] crimes have been committed and how much injustice there has been [over there]. You cannot even imagine," answers Mr Nema. In a separate WhatsApp conversation, Mr Nema wrote that he believed the Douma Four had been killed "by those criminals." He did not name the subjects of his claim. At this stage, the new authorities in Syria are unlikely to try people like Mr Nema, activists say, pointing at the interim constitution. Despite mentioning a transitional justice framework, it only cites the crimes of the Assad regime. "They see transitional justice as restricted to the crimes of the [Assad] regime and possibly ISIS . They wouldn't be happy with the idea of bringing Nema or others to justice," Mr El Hajj Saleh. The Syrian government has not made an extradition request for Mr Nema. Even if it did, it would not be accepted by France because Syria still implements the death penalty. Mr El Hajj Saleh still has hopes that his complaint filed in Syria will eventually yield some result. "I hope there will be an opening or a new horizon related to the cause of Samira, Razan, Wael and Nazem," he said. "The fall of the regime was unpredictable. Many things have been, for better or worse, unpredictable." To many, Syria's new leader, Mr Al Shara, is less ideologue than opportunist. "He's a Sunni supremacist more interested in power than religion," said Mr El Hajj Saleh. "After enduring atrocities under the Assad regime, including barrel bombing and chemical attacks , the Sunni community has developed a powerful victimhood narrative. Its instinct is to keep power. This doesn't mean necessarily systematic discrimination against other groups, but they will be dealt by the Sunnis as a big brother," he added. "Nema belongs to this world." At his trial, Mr Nema, who claims his innocence, has been doing his best to demonstrate the opposite. He portrays himself as a moderate intellectual who came to France to study. In 2016, he was kicked out of Jaish Al Islam for giving an interview to an Israeli journalist, but experts believe it was a pretext for him to leave because his attachment to the group had waned after the death of Alloush. Early in the trial, he asked to speak in English, citing comfort with the language, but the court's president declined, having only arranged for Arabic translation. He argues he should be tried in Syria, a claim rejected by prosecutors as a ploy to walk free. Still, activists say the trial in Paris has value. "Countries like France played an important role in pursuing war crimes cases during a time when Syria had no credible judiciary. With political change under way, some may understandably wish to bring these cases home," said Samer Al Deyaei, who heads the Damascus-based Free Syrian Lawyers Association. "At this stage, it is pragmatic to view foreign prosecutions as complementary – not contradictory – to domestic justice efforts . These trials can even serve as valuable legal and ethical reference points to support the work of Syria’s future truth and reconciliation mechanisms." If the trial yields no answers, Mr El Hajj Saleh has considered another path: a face-to-face meeting with Mr Nema. The idea came to him during Mr Nema's five years of pretrial detention, but he ultimately dismissed it. "I thought of this two or three years ago but I found no it's not a good idea," he said. The idea made Mr El Hajj uncomfortable. "I felt it would be a bit melodramatic. Let's see how things unfold." For now, Mr El Hajj Saleh, who spoke to The National as he prepared another trip to Syria, said he would adopt a lower profile than during his previous voyage. He does not want to give the impression he is endorsing the new government. "It's still possible that I don't exist in this new Syria, like I did not exist in the old Syria," he said, pointing at his books being banned and his inability to get a passport. He will likely get one now. But will he be invited to public events? "I'm not sure," he said.

Syrian exile tells of heartbreaking search for wife who vanished a decade ago

The National speaks to writer Yassin El Hajj Saleh as he fights for the truth