Contained in the deserted houses of Assad’s enforcers

Jamil Hassan, one of the vital feared males in Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime, wished for the torture and killing of civilians, was shaking as he walked down the steps of his condominium block.

Outdoors, the 72-year-old climbed right into a automotive in a small convoy along with his household and a handful of safety guards, only a few suitcases between them.

His neighbour and her teenage son watched.

“I knew the second I noticed them flee that Assad had fallen,” she says.

Once we entered Hassan’s condominium just a few days later, indicators of the household’s hasty departure had been all over the place.

Within the fridge was a half-eaten carrot cake with a knife nonetheless on the plate. The beds had been strewn with garments and empty shoeboxes. Flowers wilted in a vase within the eating room, and cups and plates had been left to dry by the sink.

A framed picture of a smiling Hassan and Assad held on the wall of the examine, with textual content studying: “Our skies are for us and forbidden to others”.

Hassan, known as “the butcher” by many civilians on his avenue, was one in every of Assad’s most menacing enforcers. He led the Air Drive Intelligence and oversaw a community of detention services together with the infamous Mezzeh Jail, the place detainees had been routinely tortured.

He’s one in every of many senior regime figures wished or sanctioned all over the world who’ve deserted their houses in prosperous areas of Damascus and vanished.

Discovering these males who dominated Syria with an iron fist shall be troublesome. Some worry they’ll strike political offers overseas and evade justice.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the marketing campaign to topple the regime, has vowed to seek for them inside Syria. Rebels aligned with the group now occupy Hassan’s condominium and a handwritten notice on the entrance door warns individuals to not enter.

Once we requested them the place Hassan might need gone, one grinned and replied: “I do not know – to Hell.”

Many condominium shutters on Hassan’s quiet avenue in central Damascus are actually closed. Knocks on doorways go unanswered.

Those that will communicate inform us about their worry at dwelling on a avenue with a wished warfare prison. “We had been so afraid to speak,” says the lady who watched him flee. “It was terrifying to reside subsequent to them.”

Hassan is needed within the US for “participating in conspiracy to commit merciless and inhuman therapy of civilian detainees, together with US residents”. He was convicted in absentia earlier this 12 months in France for his position in imprisoning, disappearing and torturing two Syrian-French nationals. Germany desires him too. An Interpol Pink Discover shows a photograph of Hassan alongside a note that he’s wished for “conspiracy to commit warfare crimes”.

He was positioned underneath journey bans and had his belongings frozen over the repression of civilian protesters. In April 2011 the US says Air Drive Intelligence personnel fired tear gas and live ammunition at protesting crowds in Damascus and other cities, killing at least 43.

Folks on the road describe a formidable determine who was unapproachable and all the time surrounded by guards.

A makeshift safety put up outdoors Hassan’s condominium constructing was continually staffed by navy personnel. The evening earlier than the regime collapsed, the lads merely took off their uniforms and discarded their weapons, based on one other neighbour.

“It was the primary time I might seen this put up with no lights, no sounds, no noise,” says 27-year-old Amr al-Bakri, a filmmaker who lives along with his household within the constructing subsequent door.

He mentioned locals “knew what he did to the Syrians – outdoors of Damascus and in Damascus – so we all know it however we will not say something, simply ‘good morning sir’. He’d say nothing again.”

Amr says his household needed to give away their pet canine after Hassan’s guards threatened to kill it if it did not cease barking. When Amr’s household requested for the guard put up to be moved from outdoors their dwelling, they had been advised they need to transfer home as an alternative, he says.

The guards would run common inspections on the road and test the luggage of holiday makers.

“Typically if I had a plumber or handyman to return and repair one thing one of many guards would come and test if there was actually one thing that wanted to be mounted,” says the lady dwelling in Hassan’s constructing.

Neighbours additionally say Hassan had a “golden line” for electrical energy that meant his household’s lights had been all the time on, whereas different houses within the neighbourhood had been in darkness.

The electrician known as to repair any issues on the condominium says he knew Hassan over a few years “however solely from a distance”. “[Hassan] was very strict – a navy character,” the person says. “He was a butcher… He had no mercy.”

The person advised BBC Information he had been in jail – not at Mezzeh however elsewhere – and was tortured there.

An area shopkeeper, Mohammed Naoura, says he did not like Hassan however that you just needed to seem to assist him.

“We’re blissful now,” he provides. “No one believed this is able to ever occur.”

Hussam Luka, head of the Basic Safety Directorate (GSD), was much less well-known amongst residents however had an condominium beneath Hassan.

His “ruthless, smooth-talking nature” reportedly earned him the nickname “the spider” – and he is underneath sanctions within the EU, US and UK.

A UK sanctions listing says he was “answerable for the torture of opponents in custody”, whereas the US Treasury Division says he “reportedly committed a number of massacres” whereas working in Homs.

The White Home has mentioned he’s one in every of a small group of officers who might need details about lacking American journalist Austin Tice.

At his dwelling on Monday, rebels had been dismantling furnishings to be put into storage. They mentioned they arrived after looters had already taken most of the most costly objects.

A photograph of Luka and Assad remained, printed in several sizes and kinds, alongside paperwork from safety and intelligence occasions, and ceremonial medals and certificates from the international spy service in Russia – the place the deposed Syrian chief Assad has fled.

“This award is to the coordinator of the mukhabarat [intelligence service] organ within the southern provinces of the Syrian Arab Republic,” one certificates naming Luka says. “You confirmed the utmost professionalism and put in large effort to fulfil the duties entrusted to you for the great of the Syrian individuals.”

As rebels clear the condominium, a neighbour wanders in to see what’s taking place.

When requested what she is aware of in regards to the regime official, she replies: “We hold to ourselves, they hold to themselves. Nobody on this constructing interacts with one another.” She walks away.

In different prosperous areas extra houses have been deserted. Fridges are totally stocked, wardrobes full and in some instances journey paperwork left behind.

The rebels who’ve taken over the houses are utilizing them as bases, and say they’re additionally stopping additional looting.

At one lavish condominium, males say they’re sleeping on blankets on marble flooring beneath large chandeliers and cooking on a camp range in its trendy kitchen. Weapons are propped in opposition to plush sofas and arm chairs.

“We do not want any of this,” a insurgent says, gesticulating across the room.

At one other, a baby peaks via the curtain of a sprawling ground-floor condominium with an out of doors swimming pool. A big household say they’re occupying the house.

Maybe the grandest dwelling within the space is the trendy labyrinthine underground dwelling of one of many nation’s best-known businessmen – Khodr Taher Bin Ali, higher often called Abu Ali Khodr.

Bin Ali has been sanctioned by the US, UK and EU for his position in supporting and benefiting from the Syrian regime.

His dwelling has an elevator, a full-size health club, an indoor swimming pool, jacuzzi and sauna, and an industrial kitchen.

In the master suite, there are two golden safes, with house for dozens of watches – in a drawer there’s a forgotten guarantee card for luxurious model Audemars Piguet. A gun case and jewelry packing containers within the wardrobe are empty.

The youngsters’s ensuite bedrooms nonetheless have toys and a Louis Vuitton purse on the ground and homework and faculty experiences are within the cabinets. A Quran rests on a countertop with the phrases “A present from the president Bashar al-Assad” inscribed on the aspect.

Across the nook from Bin Ali is the house of Ali Mamlouk, one in every of Assad’s closest associates and among the many most senior and infamous members of the regime. He was reportedly given the nickname “black box” due to his management over delicate data.

He was sentenced alongside Hassan by French judges this 12 months for warfare crimes, and can be wished in Lebanon for 2 explosions in 2012 within the metropolis of Tripoli that killed and wounded dozens.

Like Luka, the White Home believes Mamlouk is one in every of few males who may have details about Tice.

His house is padlocked shut, and rebels are extra reluctant to grant entry there.

In a guard sales space outdoors, there are notes on guests to the property earlier than Assad’s fall – individuals delivering candies, water and greens, and coming to repair the electrical energy.

“Nobody may see, nobody may stroll, nobody may cross by this space. It is really the primary time I am seeing this place from up shut,” says 17-year-old Mo Rasmi Taftaf, whose household personal a home close by.

“At any time when he got here in or out, guards would reduce the roads off,” one neighbour says.

Shouting down from a second-floor balcony, one other gestures in the direction of Mamlouk’s massive dwelling when requested in regards to the wished regime determine.

“It felt like there was a wierd environment” on the road the evening earlier than information broke that Assad had fled, he says, with out elaborating.

“His safety was right here on the time however I noticed them go away on Sunday morning – a number of automobiles. Ali Mamlouk wasn’t right here,” he provides, earlier than returning inside.

One other man, who declines to provide his title, says he would not wish to discuss in regards to the regime males.

“I simply wish to reside in peace. I do not wish to open this guide or discover all of those crimes – there could be a number of blood.”

Many, although, do need justice.

The leader of HTS has vowed to pursue the senior regime figures in Syria and requested different international locations at hand over those that fled. These wished elsewhere have restricted locations to run.

Discovering the lads shall be a problem.

“Whereas there is no such thing as a confirmed data on the present whereabouts of senior regime figures like Jamil Hassan, Ali Mamlouk, and others, there are issues that such people may gain advantage from political offers that allow them to evade justice,” the Syrian Heart for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) tells the BBC.

“Some are more likely to have sought refuge in allied international locations, complicating future extradition efforts, whereas others should be in Syria, dwelling discreetly.”

On Hassan’s avenue, neighbours speculate about the place the vanished warfare prison has gone.

His household left few clues within the condominium. However within the workplace is a certificates for Hassan’s daughter signed by Hassan Nasrallah, the late chief of Lebanon-based Shia militant group Hezbollah, thanking her for her “assist and assist for this honourable resistance”.

A number of neighbours recommend he could also be hiding in Lebanon or has transited via there, whereas the native shopkeeper says he thinks Hassan headed for the coast, maybe to Latakia within the north – the heartland of the minority Alawite sect to which Assad and plenty of of his closest allies belong.

In the meantime, Lebanese newspaper Nida al-Watan experiences that Mamlouk was smuggled across the border and into the Lebanese capital Beirut by Hezbollah – a long-time ally of Syria’s Ba’ath authorities.

Hezbollah has not confirmed providing help to any regime figures, and the Lebanese authorities has mentioned no Syrian officers focused by worldwide warrants had been authorised to enter via authorized crossings. Lebanese safety providers say Mamlouk will not be within the nation.

Syrian-British barrister Ibrahim Olabi says regime officers might have acquired new identities and passports, as they had been highly effective individuals backed by state establishments.

In the case of getting justice, he provides, an absence of proof will not be the issue. It’s extra about discovering them and getting them to a spot the place they are often held accountable.

The SCM says doing this may “require appreciable assets, sustained political will, and worldwide collaboration”.

Failing to take action will ship a “harmful message that crimes, together with warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity, can go unpunished”, it provides.

Ibrahim Olabi says he’s hopeful that justice shall be served.

“It’ll completely be a hunt,” he says, however “the world now’s a small place via social media, non-public investigators, political leverages”.

Hassan’s neighbours who had been keen to speak say they hope he’ll sooner or later be returned to Syria, distant from their avenue, to be punished.