Syria's new intel chief vows to dismantle Assad-era repression in prisons, security agencies

The newly appointed head of Syria’s intelligence services, Anas Khattab, has announced a sweeping plan to dismantle the institutions that were long associated with repression and fear under the regime of ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad.

“The security establishment will be reformed after dissolving all services and restructuring them in a way that honours our people,” Khattab declared, just two days after assuming his position, Caliber.Az reports via foreign news sources.

His appointment comes as part of the sweeping changes ushered in by the new leadership that overthrew Assad earlier this month.

In a statement carried by the official Sana news agency, Khattab underscored the deep suffering endured by Syrians “under the oppression and tyranny of the old regime, through its various security apparatuses that sowed corruption and inflicted torture on the people.”

The announcement comes as Syria transitions from decades of autocratic rule to a new era following the collapse of Assad’s government. After Assad’s fall, detention centres were abandoned as regime officials and agents fled the country. Most of these facilities are now under the control of fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that led the armed coalition in the seizure of Damascus.

In the aftermath, numerous Syrians have flocked to these former detention centres, hoping to uncover the fate of friends and relatives who disappeared during Syria’s 13-year civil war. The devastating conflict left more than 500,000 people dead and tens of thousands missing.

“The security services of the old regime were many and varied, with different names and affiliations, but all had in common that they had been imposed on the oppressed people for more than five decades,” Khattab added.

The scale of atrocities committed in Syria’s detention centres has been widely documented. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), more than 100,000 people died in these facilities during the conflict.

In a sign of the ongoing reckoning with the Assad regime’s legacy, a former general responsible for military justice under Assad was arrested on December 26 in western Syria. He stands accused of ordering the execution of thousands of detainees in the infamous Saydnaya prison.

Internationally, efforts to hold Assad-era officials accountable have gained momentum. Since 2022, several senior Syrian intelligence officers accused of torture and other crimes have been tried and convicted in European courts.

By Khagan Isayev