Summary
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) arrested several educational staff members and humanitarian workers across Idlib province during October and November 2018.
On the grounds of staging a demonstration on November 21, 2018, in Saraqib city to reject the replacement of the state’s curriculum by another imposed by HTS in a girls’ high school, HTS forces held several teachers and student’s parents who were in the demonstration for 24 hours and suspended the school for three consecutive days. The school, that contained 139 schoolgirls, was reopened after the new curriculum was imposed. As a result, parents preferred not to send their daughters to school.
On November 15, 2018, HTS released Ali al-Dandal, a university teacher at Ibla Private University after two months in captivity. The teacher was detained for breaching Islamic sharia decency and playing music in a graduation party within the university in early September 2018.
On November 23, 2018, the principal Samer Bqaa was also held for 24 hours but was released after paying approximately $10,000 as a fine.
On November 12, 2018, HTS held the 16-year-old Munir Qintar, a student in Ein Laruz town in Idlib, for breaking up a dispute between two students, the family of one of them has links with HTS. The boy Munir was held for few days and was set free on November 19, 2018, according to testimonies obtained by STJ.
HTS practices affected humanitarian organizations as well. On November 19, 2018, HTS fighters held Abderrazaq Awad, the head of Violet Organization for Relief and Development for embezzlement allegation but discharged him on December 1, 2018 proven not guilty. On the other side, STJ’s field researcher was likely that Awad was arrested for suspending the organization’s work in the border camps since they became under the auspices of the Salvation Government of HTS.
On November 21, 2018, masked gunmen raided the head office of the Polish Humanitarian Action (Polska Akja Humanitarna) based in Hizano town in Idlib and stole $50,000, according to eyewitnesses. The amount stolen was allocated to pay employees’ salaries. The eyewitnesses confirmed that HTS opened no investigation and the perpetrators are still unknown until December 5, 2018, the date of writing this report.
According to STJ’s field researcher, the fate of many teachers who were arrested by HTS still unknown, including Jassas al-Atrash from Saraqib, who was arrested in early November 2018. Besides, The student Mohammed Tamam al-Lodami from Trmanin village in Idlib was arrested on December 4, 2018 without revealing the reason.
HTS’s intervention in the educational sector has increased dramatically a few months ago. This caused public outrage in Idlib.
Previously, on October 12, 2018, HTS held Saddam Mohammed, the director of Ataa Organization for Humanitarian Relief for anonymous reasons.
In another similar incident, HTS’s armed militaries raided the hospital of Odai al-Hussein in Saraqib, in August 2018, and assaulted the medical staff. This incident was one of the most significant ones which were documented by STJ in an attempt to highlight the violations against medical personnel in Idlib.[1]
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[1] Idlib: Ongoing Attacks on Medical Workers, STJ, April 16, 2018 https://www.stj-sy.org/en/view/758.