Fadi Saqr Goes From Reconciliation Broker to the Dock

A Syrian official said the National Commission for Transitional Justice is preparing a legal case against Fadi Saqr, the former commander of the National Defense Forces militia, over his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity and war crimes, including mass killings and the enforced disappearance of civilians in the Tadamon neighborhood in southern Damascus and other areas of the capital during the years of war.

According to a report by the British newspaper The Guardian, published on Thursday, April 30, the expected legal move comes as the new Syrian government’s cooperation with Saqr on security matters, after Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December 2024, has angered victims and survivors who have repeatedly demanded that he be tried over documented massacres.

Independent Commission Builds Case

Zahra al-Barazi, deputy chair of the National Commission for Transitional Justice and an adviser in the Syrian Foreign Ministry, told the newspaper that the commission is working with victims to build a case against Saqr.

Al-Barazi explained that the commission, although appointed by the government, is an independent body that will refer its findings to the Syrian judiciary, which will decide whether to pursue the case.

Al-Barazi told the newspaper, “There is enough evidence against Saqr. We are also working with organizations that documented many of these matters. He is no longer useful, and no one is above the law.”

Al-Barazi noted that “plans to build the case had been in place for months, and the arrest of Amjad Yousef, one of the main perpetrators in the Tadamon massacres, last week pushed the file to the forefront and increased the political cost of keeping Saqr,” according to The Guardian.

Tadamon Massacres, Nothing Happened Without His Orders

The newspaper said it documented leaked videos from a former intelligence officer’s computer showing mass killings of around 300 civilians in the Tadamon neighborhood in 2013.

In 2022, The Guardian also published selected footage showing Amjad Yousef executing blindfolded men, pushing them into a pit, and burning their bodies.

The newspaper confirmed in its report that residents of Tadamon insist Yousef was only an implementer, and they are demanding the arrest of Fadi Saqr as the primary person responsible.

The newspaper quoted activist Ahmed al-Homsi, 33, as saying, “Amjad was just a foot soldier compared with Fadi Saqr. In Tadamon, nothing happened without his orders, whether thefts, arrests, disappearances, or killings. He was in control and knew everything.”

Maher Rahima, 31, who lived through the atrocities in Tadamon, expressed anger at the new government’s cooperation with Saqr, saying, “If officials in the new government had seen what I saw and heard the sounds of torture and smelled the burning of bodies, they would be ashamed to look at themselves in the mirror after protecting Fadi Saqr and other criminals.”

Saqr Denies, Recordings Undercut His Account

The Guardian said in its report that Fadi Saqr denied responsibility for the massacres and told the newspaper that he “only learned of the massacre through the media,” and that he “trusts the judicial process,” justifying his silence by saying he did not want to affect the course of the investigations.

He claimed that he assumed command of the National Defense Forces in Damascus in June 2013, two months after the execution footage at the pit was recorded.

However, The Guardian said it reviewed unpublished videos of additional killings carried out with the participation of National Defense Forces members in October 2013, four months after Saqr assumed command, according to the report.

The newspaper quoted Professor Ugur Umit Ungor, an Amsterdam-based academic who obtained the clips and leaked them, as saying, “What is now described as the Tadamon massacre was not a single event, but a process of mass killing carried out throughout 2013 and beyond. The National Defense Forces participated in these atrocities, and Saqr, regardless of the degree of his personal involvement, was part of the chain of command.”

Promise to Protect Witnesses, Justice Waits

Zahra al-Barazi visited Tadamon residents on Tuesday, urging them to cooperate in building the case file and reassuring them that the commission would ensure witness protection.

She told the newspaper, “We said we would help them gather a case to present to the prosecution against Fadi Saqr. That means there will be a request for his arrest.”

Al-Barazi added that she “sensed no resistance” to plans to file the case, but stressed that issuing an arrest warrant remains in the hands of the Syrian judiciary, not the commission.

The mere possibility that Saqr could face justice has restored some hope to residents of Tadamon, a neighborhood that was turned into a site of mass killing. Ahmed al-Homsi concluded his remarks to the newspaper by saying, “The arrest of Fadi Saqr would be much bigger than the arrest of Amjad Yousef. It would be like a second day of liberation.”

Who Is Saqr?

Fadi Saqr led the National Defense Forces in Tadamon and later in Damascus, according to the Syrian Memory Institution.

The Tadamon massacre was revealed in an investigation by The Guardian in April 2022, which said Syrian regime forces committed a massacre in the Tadamon neighborhood of Damascus on April 16, 2013, killing around 41 people and burying them in a mass grave.

Saqr’s leadership of the National Defense Forces in Tadamon coincided with the Tadamon massacre. He was among the commanders involved in carrying out the massacre, as he assumed command of the militia in 2012, while the Tadamon massacre took place in 2013.

At the start of the Syrian revolution in 2011, Saqr was a director at the Consumer Establishment in Damascus, according to the Manhom website. He left his job and joined the Popular Committees, then the National Defense Forces.

He became commander of the Tadamon sector of the National Defense Forces, then was appointed commander of the northern region of the National Defense Forces, deputy commander of the Damascus Center of the National Defense Forces, and later head of the Damascus centers, according to the Syrian Revolution Archive. Enab Baladi could not find the exact dates of his progression through these positions.

The “success” of several reconciliation agreements in Damascus and Rural Damascus has been attributed to him.

After the fall of the former regime, the Damascus branch council of the Bar Association removed Saqr from the lawyers’ registry in May 2025 for violating the conditions and duties of the profession set out in the law regulating the legal profession.

Tadamon Massacre

On April 27, 2022, an investigation by The Guardian revealed information about a massacre committed by Syrian regime forces on April 16, 2013, in the Tadamon neighborhood of Damascus, which killed around 41 people and buried them in a mass grave.

The investigation presented a video documenting the shooting of dozens of people, their burial in a mass grave, and the burning of their bodies by members of Syrian regime forces, according to the investigation published on Wednesday, April 27.

The investigation was based on documents and testimonies provided by researcher Anssar Shahoud and Professor Ugur Umit Ungor of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Amsterdam, citing a former soldier in regime forces who was able to obtain the video.

According to the newspaper correspondent’s commentary, the video is considered the first document to clearly implicate the regime, as it is the first clip documenting the involvement of a Syrian intelligence branch directly linked to the Syrian regime.