Aleppo | Security services arrest pro-regime media activist for fourth time, after publishing reports of customhouse’s practices and dominance

SOHR sources say that regime security services arrested, in mid-January, a pro-regime media activist, the director of “Boq’at Do’a” local magazine, since he received threats after publishing reports of the customhouse’s practices and dominance on the markets of Aleppo city. These reports highlighted the seizure of properties worth millions of Syrian liras by the customhouse.

 

It is worth noting that this is the fourth time for the media activist to be arrested by regime forces, as he had been arrested earlier on three other occasions after disclosing corruption issues in Aleppo.

 

In 2020, SOHR documented 98 violations against journalists, media practitioners and activists throughout Syria, including prosecutions, kidnappings, arrests and threats. With 69 violations,  areas under the control of Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham and Turkish-backed factions in Idlib and “Peace Spring”, “Euphrates Shield” and “Olive Branch” areas topped the list of violations against journalists, followed by regime-controlled areas with 25 violations, then SDF-held areas with four violations.