This would not be the first time that civilians fell victim to opposition brigades in Syria: they have already arrested, murdered, and tortured civilians. The kidnapping of activist Anas al-Khouli at the hands of the Army of Islam in Ghouta, and more recently, the execution of “Abu Ali Khbye” by the same armed group are two examples that come to mind.

Regardless of the nature of relations between the victims and these battalion, the torture, kidnapping and assassination, whatever the reason, is justified by claiming the battalion was dealing with a member of the regime’s Mukhabarat, the intelligence forces. If not that, the charge is that they were planning to harm fighters of the battalion. So, the accused are kidnapped and killed without being formally charged or tried.

In this way, the battalions have matched the regime in how they treat their opponents, or as they put it, “dealing with third parties” who “weaken the national sentiment”.

Issam Hamra, age 38 and a father of three children, and a designer was the latest victim at the hands of the Army of Fateh battalion in Moadamiyeh al-Sham.

“These half-sheikhs, half-bearded and half-ISIS and half-Assadist regime, this “Army of Fateh” in Moudamiyeh al-Sham tortured my brother to death,” Ali Hamra, a journalist, told SyriaUntold.

On the evening of October 12, 2015, Issam was crossing the Moadamiyeh bridge on his motorcycle when he was kidnapped by a group of armed men. The next morning, his motorcycle was discarded on the bridge. Three days later, on Wednesday, October 15, 2015, after searching and waiting, his family found his body next to a dirt hill, bearing signs of torture.

Following this incident, the Fajr Brigade of the Army of Fateh issued a statement condemning the crime, claiming it was outside of the “shura” as it was carried out by “individuals who are unknown and have not sworn allegiance to the committee”

However, the journalist Ali Hamra found in the statement an implicit recognition of the murder of his brother, who was not involved militarily or politically in the conflict. Ali’s theory is that his brother was kidnapped in order to blackmail his family into paying a ransom. Ali thinks that his brother’s heart must have stopped while he was being whipped, which is why they returned him to the town.

In a final statement, Fajr brigade said that “Issam Hamra was accused of collaborating with the Assad regime to provide information to officers in Dara’a City” and that he had been leaving Moadamiyeh to provide coordinates and information to the regime’s officers.

The statement emphasized that Hamra was beaten in a non-lethal and harmless manner, and that following the investigation, he slept. The next day, the jailer found that he was dead.

This crime is one of hundreds committed by those who once pledged to keep the revolutionaries and civilians safe. However, as the war intensified they have turned into groups with a face similar to that of the regime, extorting people and killing them. The acts of these battalions are the same acts that we first rose up against; against arbitrary actions and tribal behaviour, and against behaviours that contradict rule of law and the right to a fair trial.