ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish rights group has revealed that a former member of Turkey-backed militia group in Syria, accused of committing violations against Kurds in Afrin city, is seeking asylum in Germany.
Human Rights Organisation in Afrin said in a statement on Sunday that Bashar Abu Saleh, who had served as a member of Turkey-backed Levant Front (Jabhat al-Shamiyah) in Afrin city for years, arrived in Germany about a year ago with the hope of obtaining residency.
He is accused by Kurds from Afrin of “carrying out various brutal human rights violations against Kurdish villagers while serving under the commander of his ringleader, Ahmed Dibo, nicknamed Abu Asaad,” the rights group said in the statement.
“He was involved in torturing and kidnapping local civilians for ransom and in the appropriation of locals' homes and property, imposing royalties, cutting down thousands of fruitful and forest trees owned by displaced Kurds,” it added.
Lamaan Khalil, a member of the rights organisation, which heavily covers violations by Turkey-backed armed groups in Afrin but is based in nearby Shahba, told Rudaw’s Dilbxwin Dara late Monday that they have been closely monitoring the actions and movements of Abu Saleh.
She said that Abu Saleh served as a militant in Afrin for two years but later moved to Turkey. After a while he returned to Afrin but did not stay long, deciding to migrate to Germany through Turkey. Khalil added that the former militant used to capture and beat Kurds, demanding ransom.
Khalil named two of his victims: Gando Wahid Qambar and Mohammed Sido. The former was “captured and tortured. He was asked to pay $1,000 or else they would accuse him of being affiliated to the Autonomous Administration,” she told Rudaw, adding that the same thing happened to Sido.
Afrin was occupied by Turkey and its Syrian proxies in March 2018 after these forces launched a military campaign against Kurdish forces.
Abu Saleh currently stays in a refugee camp in Germany’s Hamm city, seeking residency, according to Khalil.
The Kurdish rights group has not filed any lawsuit against Abu Saleh yet as all victims are in Syria, especially in Afrin and Shahba. “They are willing to bear witness. They have relatives in Europe but we have heard that they should bear their witness through videos,” Khalil said.
She said if the witnesses were present in Germany the legal work against him “would be very easy.”
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