Activists in Rural Damascus said that Assad forces executed military doctor Mu’taz Hteitani who was detained in one of the accommodation centers which the Assad regime set up in the Damascus suburbs to house the people who were evicted from eastern Ghouta in March. Residents of the Damascus suburb were forced to agree to resettle their status to avoid being displaced from their homes.
Hteitani existed eastern Ghouta via one of the so-called safe passages that Russia and the Assad regime offered for residents of the Damascus suburb during the military campaign the Assad regime and its allies carried out in the area. He existed eastern Ghouta along with many workers in medical, educational and relief organizations.
Activists said that Hteitani, who was a Brigadier General, was detained by Assad’s intelligence services in an accommodation center and taken to a detention center where he was executed. Assad forced executed Hteitani in spite of the pledges made by Russia and the Assad forces not to detain or cause harm to those who agreed to have their status resettled with the regime.
The Syrian Coalition earlier stressed that there will be no safe environment in Syria as long as the Assad regime survives in power and the intelligence and security services as well as the Iranian terrorist militias who have committed the most serious crimes against civilians for more than seven years.
A cardiologist surgeon with the rank of brigadier general, Hteitani announced he was defecting from the Assad regime’s army in 2013. He was born in the town of Mleiha in the Damascus suburb in 1962. He remained in eastern Ghouta following his defection and co- established a number of civilian bodies there.
Activists in eastern Ghouta pointed out that the Assad regime has recently carried out mass arrests campaign in eastern Ghouta, targeting mainly the young people with the purpose of forced recruitment. Former members of the institutions of the revolution have also been subjected to extensive investigations. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
