Syria's new intelligence chief has announced a plan to dismantle the institutions he said were responsible for torture and corruption under deposed president Bashar Al Assad, as families told The National of abuse and disappearances under the old regime.
“The security establishment will be reconstituted again, after dissolving all security branches and restructuring them in a manner befitting our people,” Anas Khattab said, two days after he was made the head of Syria's General Intelligence Service.
He said Syrians had suffered “from the injustice and tyranny of the former regime, through its various security apparatuses that spread corruption”.
Syrian prisons were emptied of regime critics after the fall of Mr Al Assad as officials and agents of the toppled government fled the country.
Most of these centres are now guarded by fighters of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, the rebel group leading the armed coalition that seized power in Damascus.
Syrians have rushed to prisons in the hope of finding traces of relatives and friends who went missing under the Assad regime.
Following years of anguish and quiet despair, some are now finding a long-awaited sense of closure. Previously unable to mourn out of fear of reprisals, families in the capital have been conducting rituals of remembrance for those taken by the “Mukhabarat”, as the intelligence services were known.
Ahmad Alama was just 24 years old when he was captured by air force intelligence in the Al Amara district of Damascus in 2013.
He was charged with setting up anti-regime social media pages and taking part in protests. His family received confirmation of his death in 2015, and for nine years, they were unable to honour his memory.
“I managed to get to someone who works in the air force intelligence, one of the regime’s most brutal security apparatus. He showed me the photo of my nephew, executed and with a number placed on his chest,” Ahmad's uncle, businessman Ammar Alama, told The National.
“He was not a criminal, or a fighter or anyone who ever carried arms, his crime was praying at the Tobeh mosque, in the district of Al Ebeh, and participating in an anti-regime protest. They were kids.”
A few days after the street demonstration, regime agents detained Mr Alama after raiding and smashing up the family home, the uncle said. “They broke it all, the lights, the windows, the washing machine,” he told The National.
“They took him to Mazzeh Investigations air force intelligence branch … When I managed to get a visit, he weighed only about 35 kilos and he was as thin as a stick. I wished that the pain would end for him when I saw him – his teeth were broken, and I didn’t even recognise him.”
Intelligence agents would commonly extort desperate families for big money by offering the release of prisoners.
“They asked for 20 million Syrian pounds back then (about US$100,000] to release him,” Ammar Alama said. “We were told Ahmad would be sent to a military judge and set free. But later we received information that all those who were sent from air force intelligence to Sednaya prison were executed upon arrival, up to 700 people, and Ahmed was one of them.
“The officers we tried to get to release him were upset as they lost a lot of money because it was a profitable business for them. We couldn’t even hold a funeral or a service for our boy and we were hounded by the authorities.
“It was a harrowing situation for us, we couldn’t even mention him and publicly we had to even disown him or they would start taking our other children,” Ammar Alama added. “If he was alive, he would be so proud that Syria is free again.”
According to UK-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 100,000 people died in Syrian prisons and detention centres during Syria's 13-year civil war.
After the Assad regime fell, bodies of the disappeared started arriving at hospitals from intelligence branches and prisons such as Sednaya, with families left searching for their loved ones among the corpses.
Shahd Bou Hassoun, a volunteer doctor at Al Moshtahed General Hospital in Damascus, told The National that many of the bodies were disfigured, showing clear signs of torture or injury.
“People have been supporting the families, and we’ve been trying to run things as smoothly as possible,” the doctor said. “As volunteers, we come to fill a gap and help people find some closure.”
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What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
Profile of Whizkey
Date founded: 04 November 2017
Founders: Abdulaziz AlBlooshi and Harsh Hirani
Based: Dubai, UAE
Number of employees: 10
Sector: AI, software
Cashflow: Dh2.5 Million
Funding stage: Series A
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
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- Financial well-being incentives
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
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BIO
Favourite holiday destination: Turkey - because the government look after animals so well there.
Favourite film: I love scary movies. I have so many favourites but The Ring stands out.
Favourite book: The Lord of the Rings. I didn’t like the movies but I loved the books.
Favourite colour: Black.
Favourite music: Hard rock. I actually also perform as a rock DJ in Dubai.
Avengers: Endgame
Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Josh Brolin
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Name: Peter Dicce
Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
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