DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Syrian authorities have arrested a former senior security officer and cousin of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad seen by some as responsible for sparking the country’s 2011 uprising due to a crackdown on protests in the southern city of Daraa, state media said.
Atef Najib, a brigadier general and former head of the Political Security Department in Daraa, was arrested by General Security forces in the country’s western Latakia province, state media SANA said.
Syria’s new ruling authority has carried out security crackdowns in several regions that it says aim to detain remnants of the former government, arresting dozens of people, mostly low-level officers or combatants.
Najib is the most senior member of Assad’s former political or security structures whose arrest has been announced since Islamist rebels Hayat Tahrir al-Sham seized power from the former president in a lightning offensive last year.
HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has since been appointed president for the transitional phase and has pledged to arrest members of the former government accused of crimes.
“This step comes within the framework of the authorities’ efforts to hold accountable those involved in violations against the Syrian people and enhance security and stability in the region,” SANA quoted the head of General Security in Latakia, Mustafa Knaifati, as saying.
SANA said Najib was handed over to the relevant authorities to face trial.
The 2011 arrest and torture of a group of Syrian boys in Daraa, where Najib was security chief, sparked protests and eventually ignited a nationwide uprising that was met with a brutal crackdown by the Assad government.
The U.S. sanctioned Najib in 2011 for alleged involvement in human rights abuses in Syria.
(Reporting by Timour Azhari in Damascus and Kinda Makieh; Editing by Alex Richardson)
