The mother of Hamza al-Khateeb, a Syrian child who died under torture in former regime prisons, said she felt relief after former security official Atef Najib stood trial for the first time since the fall of Bashar al Assad’s regime.
In an interview with Anadolu, Samira Hahami said seeing Najib in court brought her some comfort but stressed that justice remains incomplete.
“It was an indescribable joy. I felt some peace seeing him there,” she said, but stressed that full justice would only come with accountability at the highest levels.
“The real justice will be when the head of the snake is held accountable,” she said, referring to Assad, adding that the minimum acceptable punishment would be execution.
Najib, a cousin of Assad and former political security chief in Syria’s Daraa city who oversaw security operations in Daraa during the first days of the Syrian uprising in 2011, appeared on Sunday before the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus.
He was arrested in January last year and is accused of being one of the first to carry out violations against civilians in Daraa. He is also blamed for the arrest and torture of children in Daraa who had written anti-regime slogans on walls, an incident that sparked initial protests in Syria.
Recounting the moment the body of her son was returned, Hahami described the severity of the abuse he had endured.
“When they brought him home, I saw him. It was an indescribable feeling. From the horror of what I saw, he did not look like Hamza at all,” she said. “His face, his eyes, his entire body had changed.”
She said his body was severely disfigured and swollen to the point that he was almost unrecognisable, describing the moment as deeply traumatic.
“He was just a child, like any other boy. He did not go out to harm anyone,” she said, adding that she holds former regime officers responsible for his torture and death.”
Hamza was abducted in 2011 at the age of 13 and subjected to severe torture before dying in custody. His body was later returned to his family, and his case became a rallying point during the early days of the uprising.
“They do not care about the condition of a child, they do not feel responsible, and they are not normal human beings to do what they did to him, as he was subjected to the most severe forms of torture,” the bereaved mother said.
Syrian authorities have repeatedly announced arrests of individuals accused of abuses against civilians during the conflict between 2011 and 2024, describing such steps as part of efforts to pursue accountability.
In December 2024, Assad, who ruled Syria for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia, bringing an end to the Ba’ath Party’s decades of rule that began in 1963. A new administration led by President Ahmed al Sharaa was formed in January 2025.
