A file discovered at General Intelligence Directorate headquarters details an operation to investigate SIRAJ, a Syrian journalist collective that is part of the OCCRP network.
Less than two months before the sudden collapse of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, it was business as usual at the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) — and that included spying on journalists.
In particular, the intelligence agency was looking into Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism (SIRAJ), according to documents discovered at GID headquarters after rebel groups took power on December 8.
SIRAJ is a collective of journalists who have been publishing stories exposing corruption and human rights abuses under the Assad regime since 2019. But the GID documents show that the agency had concocted a sinister theory about them.
“The mentioned platform is merely a front for espionage activities, gathering information and connecting (with) sources to collect intelligence about Syria’s military and security institutions at various levels,” one document reads.
The allegation is untrue, but it reflects the paranoid view of the Assad regime toward independent media — an attitude that often turned violent.
Assad’s security forces abducted hundreds of journalists throughout the war, and Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) said 23 remained in prison the day the regime fell. Another seven journalists “were victims of enforced disappearances — abducted to unknown locations,” the advocacy group said in a statement.
Assad’s regime and its affiliates have killed at least 181 media professionals since 2011, according to RSF.
That was the year protests erupted as part of the “Arab Spring,” when people took to the streets demanding democratic reform across a region dominated by autocratic governments. In Syria, Assad’s forces waged a bloody crackdown, sparking a civil war that has claimed the lives of more than 500,000 people.
But the killing had been going on long before that, and the true number of activists, journalists and other perceived opponents of the regime may never be known.
“Over more than five decades, the Assad dictatorship (became) a machine for making the bodies of their victims disappear in mass graves,” Thibaut Bruttin, RSF’s director general, told OCCRP.
More details of the regime’s crimes have come to light since Assad flew to Moscow the night before rebel forces swept into the capital, Damascus. With Assad gone, his allies in many sections of government fled their offices — including the GID.
The rebel coalition led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has allowed journalists and researchers to sift through mountains of government paperwork, some of which provide a record of the regime’s crimes.
“It was ok to take pictures, but it was prohibited to take the documents out of the office,” said Feras Dalatey, a Syrian investigative journalist who visited the GID headquarters on December 20 and uncovered the file on SIRAJ.
Credit: Ali Ibrahim/SIRAJ
The General Intelligence Directorate in Damascus, Syria.
Spying Approval
The dossier Dalatey discovered shows that the GID appeared to interpret normal journalistic practices carried out by SIRAJ reporters — interviewing people, examining documents — as undercover intelligence work.
“This information is then shared with a network of international Western organizations linked to U.S. and European intelligence agencies,” according to a memo to the GID’s director general.
The claim is odd since SIRAJ publishes its findings on its own website and with media partners, so the information reporters obtain is available to anyone.
The GID memo names “major international organizations collaborating with the so-called dubious platform ‘SIRAJ’ and exchanging information under the pretext of knowledge sharing.”
Included in the list is the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), an association of non-profit organizations.
“The document misrepresents GIJN’s work and that of investigative journalists” said Emilia Diaz-Struck, the organization’s executive director.
The GID memo focuses on a story published by SIRAJ and OCCRP in September revealing loopholes in the sanctions system, which allowed the Syrian army to obtain Swedish-made trucks.
“Following the publication of these findings, several Swedish politicians and parliamentarians have demanded that the Council of the European Union in Brussels review its policy on sanctions against Syria,” said the GID memo.
On October 17, the GID director general authorized an operation to spy on SIRAJ. The memo requesting that operation shows how the GID’s intelligence network extended outside Syria.
“Instruct our stations abroad to follow up on the matter and provide us with the available information, including detailed identities of the operatives running the suspicious platform under the cover of being journalists,” the author of the memo requested.
The GID general director was Hussam Luqa, who has been sanctioned by the European Union and is nicknamed “The Spider.” His whereabouts are unknown, and he did not respond to questions sent via WhatsApp.
While Luqa approved the operation, it is unclear from the documents what assets were deployed or what specific activities were undertaken. And the regime collapsed soon afterwards.
However, shortly after the memo was written, two armed GID agents showed up at the Damascus workplace of the father of a SIRAJ journalist who lives abroad. They interrogated him for three hours about his son, and searched his phone. For fear of being detained, the journalist’s family left their home for a few days after the interrogation.
Long Road to Justice
As terrifying as that interrogation was, many Syrians suffered much worse under the Assad regime.
The security services were notorious for torturing people to extract information. Prisons were filled with those suspected of working against the regime, while thousands of other people simply disappeared.
With Assad gone and an interim government in place, victims and their families are demanding accountability. But the question remains: What will that look like?
“International justice offers various ways to prosecute Bashar al-Assad for the murders of journalists during the years of repression that followed the popular uprising of 2011,” said Bruttin of RSF. “However, one can hope that the Syrian justice system could do the job in the near future.”
Credit: Imago/Alamy Stock Photo
Protesters demanding the release of detained journalists and activists in Idlib, Syria.
Whatever legal avenue is chosen, Bruttin warned that justice will not arrive anytime soon, as researchers need to identify victims and gather evidence against those responsible.
“A long way awaits all those who want to hold to account those responsible for these heinous crimes,” he said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has also urged Syria’s new government to pursue accountability for media workers who were murdered and imprisoned during the civil war.
“The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities to take decisive action to ensure the safety of all journalists,” the advocacy group added in a statement.
While the Assad regime is responsible for the killing of at least 181 journalists, according to RSF, another 102 were murdered by other parties. That includes six journalists killed by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, which is now running the country.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
Restoring trust in the judicial system is a priority for the new government, a spokesperson told Al Jazeera. That includes setting up special tribunals to try members and supporters of the Assad regime who “committed crimes against Syrians,” he said.
Additional reporting by David Kenner (ICIJ) and Feras Delatey.
