Human rights groups call for probe after new Syrian justice minister appears at public execution of two women

DAMASCUS, Jan. 09 (YPA) – Human rights organizations have called on the “Syrian Interim Government” to conduct an investigation after Minister of Justice “Shadi Al-Waisi” appeared during a public execution of two women in videos that were shared widely online.

Activists widely shared two video clips in recent days. In one, armed men demand that a woman, accused of prostitution, kneel in the middle of the street, before one of them shoots her in the head, killing her.

In the second clip, an armed man shoots another woman’s head after reading her death sentence for the same charge, prostitution.

In the first video, Al-Waisi is seen filming the incident with a mobile phone, while in the second, he is heard reading out the field execution sentence, which sparked severe criticism and calls for his dismissal.

Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, confirmed to AFP that Al-Waisi was, at the time, a Sharia judge for “Jabhat al-Nusra,” which later severed ties with al-Qaeda and changed its name to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

The group led the opposition factions’ offensive that resulted in the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad on December 8th.

@E.Y.M