UAE arrests Syrian businessman in Dubai

 The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has arrested a Syrian businessman who was residing in the country’s emirate of Dubai, local media reported yesterday.

An official source told local media that the arrest of Muhannad Al-Masri had come following an official request by the Syrian regime to extradite him back to Damascus. Al-Masri was claimed to have “financed terror groups.”

In early November, The Arab and International Criminal Police branch, known as “Interpol Damascus,” at the country’s interior ministry demanded the UAE police to arrest and hand over two Syrians, one of whom was Al-Masri, over allegedly “supporting and funding terrorism.”

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The Syrian authorities accuse Al-Masri of “securing funding for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)’s commercial and economic activities within the UAE,” in addition to allegedly having “links to the organisation’s leader, Abu Mohammed Al-Julani.

Turkey’s Anadolu Agency has reported that Al-Masry had expressed his gratitude to the Turkish-brokered “safe zone” in northern Syria. He recently announced that his business group, DAMSCO, had begun an  “on the ground rehabilitation support and training in refugee camps near the Turkish-Syrian border.