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Former Assad defence minister added to list of war criminals

February 8, 2018 at 10:02 am

Former Syrian Defence Minister Fahd Al-Freej [Syriaonline/Facebook]

The International Network to Prosecute War Criminals has added the former Syrian Defence Minister Fahd Al-Freej to its list of war criminals, accusing him of cracking down on protesters in the Syrian revolution, AlKhaleejOnline reported yesterday.

The network accused Al-Freej of committing “awful war crimes against humanity” during his five years as Defence Minister since he was appointed to the post on 18 July 2012.

Since the start of the revolution in March 2011, the network said, Al-Freej ordered his militias forces, Al-Shabiha, to suppress the popular demonstrations, arrest thousands of demonstrators and torture them to death.

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According to the network, Al-Freej’s militias raped women and killed children.

He used “excessive force, internationally banned weapons, chlorine gas and nerve gas” and ordered strikes on “villages, medical centres and humanitarian supplies with rockets and barrel bombs, killing thousands of civilians”.

The war in Syria has claimed 200,000 lives, of these 23,000 are women and 25,000 are children. “The regime [committed] the largest share of the most horrible and deadly crimes against civilians”.