The Internal Security Command in Deir Ezzor province announced the arrest of the suspect accused of kidnapping child Adnan Nghaimish, who disappeared from the town of Gharanij (in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside, eastern Syria) around 10 months ago.
The command also revealed details of the abduction, publishing confessions by the suspect without disclosing his full identity and referring to him only by the initials “A.S.”
According to the statement, the suspect lured the child, held him captive, and demanded a ransom of $150,000 from his family. The command said the operation involved the suspect’s wife, “A.R.,” her brother, also identified as “A.R.,” and another man, “A.H.,” who was tasked with sending videos of the child being tortured to his family and negotiating the ransom.
The command said the detainees were referred to the competent judicial authorities for legal action, according to a statement published by the official Deir Ezzor governorate account on Monday, March 16, 2026.
The governorate’s official page also published a recording documenting the suspect’s confession. In the recording, he said he kidnapped the child after the boy asked him for a ride to his maternal uncles’ home in al-Ismailiya village (in Deir Ezzor province, eastern Syria). Instead, he took the child to his own home and kept him there.
The suspect said he demanded $150,000 from the family, adding that negotiations continued for six months.
He said he later released the child after negotiations ended without an agreement, leaving him at a house wrapped in medical gauze, indicating that he had been severely beaten.
The Child’s Story
The child was kidnapped in broad daylight from in front of his family’s home in Gharanij in early May 2025, in an incident that sparked widespread condemnation and shocked local residents, especially as it took place in an area that was then under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Ayman al-Allaw, a resident of Gharanij, told Enab Baladi in a previous report that the child’s family had received a video from the kidnappers showing the boy pleading with his relatives for food, in footage that triggered widespread grief and strong engagement on social media.
At the time, the family said the kidnappers had renewed their demand for a ransom of $50,000, stipulating that the money be transferred outside the country without intermediaries or guarantees, a condition the family firmly rejected.
The family also said there were strong suspicions about the involvement of several individuals, amid the absence of any serious action by the authorities responsible for the area at the time.
Growing Incidents
Security challenges continue to deepen in Deir Ezzor and its countryside, where kidnappings have become a tool for financial extortion and settling disputes. The phenomenon worsened amid deteriorating economic conditions and weak security authority during the period of SDF control, pushing some individuals and groups to resort to kidnapping for ransom.
Lawyer Luay al-Ahmad, from the city of Deir Ezzor, previously told Enab Baladi that confronting the phenomenon requires more than local efforts.
In addition to strengthening dialogue and coordination among the province’s social components, he said there must be root solutions that address the main drivers of kidnapping, including unemployment and poverty.
He added that establishing effective security mechanisms, documenting kidnapping cases, and identifying those responsible could help deter such gangs, alongside raising public awareness of the dangers of the phenomenon and reinforcing social cohesion across the province.
