A Syrian living in Malta is appealing for the fair trial of his two brothers who he believes were forced to confess to murdering a prominent Islamic scholar’s son.
Hussein Mallol said that his brothers, Ghassan Mustafa Mallol, 24, and Ahmad Mustafa Mallol, 32, were arrested in Idlib, northern Syria, on November 20. Six months later, they appeared on Syrian TV “confessing” to murder.
Their eight brothers – including four in Malta – believe Ghassan and Ahmad have been threatened to admit something they never did.
Backed by Amnesty International and other groups, they are calling for a fair hearing and an investigation into reports of torture on both men.
According to Syria’s news agency Sana, Saria Hassoun, the son of the country’s Grand Mufti (the highest official of religious law in a Sunni or Ibadi Muslim country), was killed in an ambush on October 2.
During the shoot-out, a history professor from Aleppo University was also killed.
In their video confession, the brothers claimed they were paid some £530 each to kill the two men.
“It is absolutely impossible that my brothers, who have a contracting company of their own, participated in a demonstration as they had no political affiliations and so could not have done something of the sort,” Mr Mallol, 30, insisted.
Mr Mallol said his brothers – who used to work in Malta – disappeared in November and it was not until two months later that a released prisoner informed the family they were being detained in Idlib.
The family was never allowed near the prison. Four months later, the “confession” was aired on TV.
On the following day, April 14, the Syrian regime’s ambassador to the UN, Bashar al-Ja’afari, told the Security Council that two men had been arrested and confessed to assassinating Mr Hassoun.
But this statement raised more eyebrows than just those of the Mallol family because the Syrian media had carried similar confessions on these two same deaths four months before.
Both in April and December, the Syrian media aired footage of alleged murderers captured by the state, only the people who confessed to the crime were different.
Mr Mallol insisted that Abdel Jalil Said, who used to work with the Grand Mufti but fled to Turkey, had said that the government’s regime was behind the assassination and neither Ghassan nor Ahmad had anything to do with the killings.
Mr Mallol has been in touch with international news media, including Al Jazeera and BBC Arabic, and organisations such as Human Rights Watch and the Red Cross to pressure the Syrian authorities into giving his brothers the chance to speak in front of a magistrate.
“We’re not asking the government to let our brothers go free but to give them the chance to speak in front of a magistrate,” Mr Mallol said.
The brothers have not been given access to a lawyer. Another released detainee even claimed that father-of-three Ahmad had been stabbed in the leg when he refused to “confess” on TV.
Mr Mallol is afraid that his brothers will have to endure more torture, including electrocution. Asked whether he trusts the country’s judicial system, he said: “The most important thing is that they get the opportunity to voice their innocence.
“Tens of lawyers have contacted our family, insisting they have enough evidence to prove my brothers are innocent.
“Ghassan still doesn’t know he’s become a father and we’ve been living in despair for months on end. All we can do is fight for Ghassan and Ahmad’s right to be heard.”