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* Our Projects * Our Reporting * All Investigations * All Scoops * All Features * All News * About * About OCCRP * Our Team * Our Global Network * Global Anti-Corruption Consortium * Accomplice Program * Impact * Annual Reports * Awards * Supporters * Work with Us * History of OCCRP * Board of Directors * Resources for Journalists * OCCRP ID – Research Desk * OCCRP Aleph – Data Platform * Donate * Organized Crime * Asset Seizures * Cartels * Fraud * Laundromats * Drugs * Smuggling * All Organized Crime * Corruption * Embezzlement * Sanctions Busting * COVID 19 * Election-rigging * All Corruption * Regions * Russia * United States * United Arab Emirates * Azerbaijan * Europe * All Regions * Resources for Journalists * OCCRP Aleph * Explore Datasets * OCCRP ID * Get Help Researching Your Story * OCCRP * About Us * Our Team * Global Network * Global Anti-Corruption Consortium * Subscribe to our Newsletter * Accomplice Program * Announcements * Impact to Date * Video * Features * All Projects * Leak to OCCRP * Bypassing Censorship No result for See all results undefined MATCHING RESULTS undefined See all results OCCRP * About Us * Our Team * Global Network * Global Anti-Corruption Consortium * Subscribe to our Newsletter * Accomplice Program * Announcements * Impact to Date * Video * Features * All Projects * Leak to OCCRP * Bypassing Censorship * * * * * Donate Get quality reporting directly into your inbox, every week Subscribe to our newsletter: Submit Submit By submitting your email address you agree to OCCRP’s Privacy Policy * en * Dubai Unlocked * Kyrgyzstan: The Shadow Investor * Cyprus Confidential * Russian Asset Tracker * Ukraine * Russia * Georgia DOCUMENTS FOUND AFTER THE FALL OF ASSAD SHOW SYRIAN INTELLIGENCE SPYING ON JOURNALISTS Scoop A file discovered at General Intelligence Directorate headquarters details an operation to investigate SIRAJ, a Syrian journalist collective that is part of the OCCRP network. People celebrating the fall of the Bashir al-Assad regime in Homs, Syria, on December 9, 2024. Banner: IMAGESLIVE/Alamy Stock Photo Banner: IMAGESLIVE/Alamy Stock Photo RELATED ARTICLES BELGIAN MONEY LAUNDERING INVESTIGATION OVERLAPS WITH UKRAINE WAR PROFITEERING PROBE Belgian prosecutors have seized about $2 million as part of an investigation into Iryna Kut and her diamond company. In Ukraine, authorities raided her warehouses while investigating a scandal about food sold to the military at inflated prices. Kut has not been charged in either country, and it’s unclear if the cases are connected. THE GRANDSON OF TAJIKISTAN'S PRESIDENT BOUGHT A DUBAI APARTMENT AT AGE 9. WHERE DID THE MONEY COME FROM? Leaked property records show Tajikistan’s political elite have a taste for luxury apartments in Dubai. One of them, the grandson of President Emomali Rahmon, snapped up a three-bedroom beachfront flat — now valued at $1.3 million — while still a small child. RANSOMWARE ATTACK ON BRAZILIAN GOV’T EXPOSES ‘FOG’ CYBER-GANG Justice officials from Brazil and the U.S. are investigating Fog, a new ransomware group that attacked Brazilian government institutions in July. THE GRANDSON OF TAJIKISTAN'S PRESIDENT BOUGHT A DUBAI APARTMENT AT AGE 9. WHERE DID THE MONEY COME FROM? Leaked property records show Tajikistan’s political elite have a taste for luxury apartments in Dubai. One of them, the grandson of President Emomali Rahmon, snapped up a three-bedroom beachfront flat — now valued at $1.3 million — while still a small child. RANSOMWARE ATTACK ON BRAZILIAN GOV’T EXPOSES ‘FOG’ CYBER-GANG Justice officials from Brazil and the U.S. are investigating Fog, a new ransomware group that attacked Brazilian government institutions in July. BELGIAN MONEY LAUNDERING INVESTIGATION OVERLAPS WITH UKRAINE WAR PROFITEERING PROBE Belgian prosecutors have seized about $2 million as part of an investigation into Iryna Kut and her diamond company. In Ukraine, authorities raided her warehouses while investigating a scandal about food sold to the military at inflated prices. Kut has not been charged in either country, and it’s unclear if the cases are connected. THE GRANDSON OF TAJIKISTAN'S PRESIDENT BOUGHT A DUBAI APARTMENT AT AGE 9. WHERE DID THE MONEY COME FROM? Leaked property records show Tajikistan’s political elite have a taste for luxury apartments in Dubai. One of them, the grandson of President Emomali Rahmon, snapped up a three-bedroom beachfront flat — now valued at $1.3 million — while still a small child. RANSOMWARE ATTACK ON BRAZILIAN GOV’T EXPOSES ‘FOG’ CYBER-GANG Justice officials from Brazil and the U.S. are investigating Fog, a new ransomware group that attacked Brazilian government institutions in July. BELGIAN MONEY LAUNDERING INVESTIGATION OVERLAPS WITH UKRAINE WAR PROFITEERING PROBE Belgian prosecutors have seized about $2 million as part of an investigation into Iryna Kut and her diamond company. In Ukraine, authorities raided her warehouses while investigating a scandal about food sold to the military at inflated prices. Kut has not been charged in either country, and it’s unclear if the cases are connected. THE GRANDSON OF TAJIKISTAN'S PRESIDENT BOUGHT A DUBAI APARTMENT AT AGE 9. WHERE DID THE MONEY COME FROM? Leaked property records show Tajikistan’s political elite have a taste for luxury apartments in Dubai. One of them, the grandson of President Emomali Rahmon, snapped up a three-bedroom beachfront flat — now valued at $1.3 million — while still a small child. REPORTED BY Ali Ibrahim and Mohamed Bassiki (SIRAJ), Selma Mhaoud and Shaya Laughlin (OCCRP) December 27, 2024 * * * * * Less than two months before the sudden collapse of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, it was business as usual at the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) — and that included spying on journalists. In particular, the intelligence agency was looking into Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism (SIRAJ), according to documents discovered at GID headquarters after rebel groups took power on December 8. SIRAJ is a collective of journalists who have been publishing stories exposing corruption and human rights abuses under the Assad regime since 2019. But the GID documents show that the agency had concocted a sinister theory about them. “The mentioned platform is merely a front for espionage activities, gathering information and connecting (with) sources to collect intelligence about Syria’s military and security institutions at various levels,” one document reads. The allegation is untrue, but it reflects the paranoid view of the Assad regime toward independent media — an attitude that often turned violent. Assad’s security forces abducted hundreds of journalists throughout the war, and Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) said 23 remained in prison the day the regime fell. Another seven journalists “were victims of enforced disappearances — abducted to unknown locations,” the advocacy group said in a statement. Assad’s regime and its affiliates have killed at least 181 media professionals since 2011, according to RSF. That was the year protests erupted as part of the “Arab Spring,” when people took to the streets demanding democratic reform across a region dominated by autocratic governments. In Syria, Assad’s forces waged a bloody crackdown, sparking a civil war that has claimed the lives of more than 500,000 people. But the killing had been going on long before that, and the true number of activists, journalists and other perceived opponents of the regime may never be known. “Over more than five decades, the Assad dictatorship (became) a machine for making the bodies of their victims disappear in mass graves,” Thibaut Bruttin, RSF’s director general, told OCCRP. More details of the regime’s crimes have come to light since Assad flew to Moscow the night before rebel forces swept into the capital, Damascus. With Assad gone, his allies in many sections of government fled their offices — including the GID. The rebel coalition led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has allowed journalists and researchers to sift through mountains of government paperwork, some of which provide a record of the regime’s crimes. “It was ok to take pictures, but it was prohibited to take the documents out of the office,” said Feras Dalatey, a Syrian investigative journalist who visited the GID headquarters on December 20 and uncovered the file on SIRAJ. Credit: Ali Ibrahim/SIRAJ The General Intelligence Directorate in Damascus, Syria. SPYING APPROVAL The dossier Dalatey discovered shows that the GID appeared to interpret normal journalistic practices carried out by SIRAJ reporters — interviewing people, examining documents — as undercover intelligence work. “This information is then shared with a network of international Western organizations linked to U.S. and European intelligence agencies,” according to a memo to the GID’s director general. The claim is odd since SIRAJ publishes its findings on its own website and with media partners, so the information reporters obtain is available to anyone. The GID memo names “major international organizations collaborating with the so-called dubious platform ‘SIRAJ’ and exchanging information under the pretext of knowledge sharing.” Included in the list is the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), an association of non-profit organizations. “The document misrepresents GIJN's work and that of investigative journalists" said Emilia Diaz-Struck, the organization’s executive director. The GID memo focuses on a story published by SIRAJ and OCCRP in September revealing loopholes in the sanctions system, which allowed the Syrian army to obtain Swedish-made trucks. “Following the publication of these findings, several Swedish politicians and parliamentarians have demanded that the Council of the European Union in Brussels review its policy on sanctions against Syria,” said the GID memo. On October 17, the GID director general authorized an operation to spy on SIRAJ. The memo requesting that operation shows how the GID’s intelligence network extended outside Syria. “Instruct our stations abroad to follow up on the matter and provide us with the available information, including detailed identities of the operatives running the suspicious platform under the cover of being journalists,” the author of the memo requested. The GID general director was Hussam Luqa, who has been sanctioned by the European Union and is nicknamed “The Spider.” His whereabouts are unknown, and he did not respond to questions sent via WhatsApp. While Luqa approved the operation, it is unclear from the documents what assets were deployed or what specific activities were undertaken. And the regime collapsed soon afterwards. However, shortly after the memo was written, two armed GID agents showed up at the Damascus workplace of the father of a SIRAJ journalist who lives abroad. They interrogated him for three hours about his son, and searched his phone. For fear of being detained, the journalist’s family left their home for a few days after the interrogation. LONG ROAD TO JUSTICE As terrifying as that interrogation was, many Syrians suffered much worse under the Assad regime. The security services were notorious for torturing people to extract information. Prisons were filled with those suspected of working against the regime, while thousands of other people simply disappeared. With Assad gone and an interim government in place, victims and their families are demanding accountability. But the question remains: What will that look like? “International justice offers various ways to prosecute Bashar al-Assad for the murders of journalists during the years of repression that followed the popular uprising of 2011,” said Bruttin of RSF. “However, one can hope that the Syrian justice system could do the job in the near future.” Credit: Imago/Alamy Stock Photo Protesters demanding the release of detained journalists and activists in Idlib, Syria. Whatever legal avenue is chosen, Bruttin warned that justice will not arrive anytime soon, as researchers need to identify victims and gather evidence against those responsible. “A long way awaits all those who want to hold to account those responsible for these heinous crimes,” he said. The Committee to Protect Journalists has also urged Syria’s new government to pursue accountability for media workers who were murdered and imprisoned during the civil war. “The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities to take decisive action to ensure the safety of all journalists,” the advocacy group added in a statement. While the Assad regime is responsible for the killing of at least 181 journalists, according to RSF, another 102 were murdered by other parties. That includes six journalists killed by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, which is now running the country. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham did not respond to a request for comment before publication. Restoring trust in the judicial system is a priority for the new government, a spokesperson told Al Jazeera. That includes setting up special tribunals to try members and supporters of the Assad regime who “committed crimes against Syrians,” he said. Additional reporting by David Kenner (ICIJ) and Feras Delatey. December 27, 2024 * * * * * December 27, 2024 * * * * * READ OTHER ARTICLES TAGGED WITH: Human Rights Show more Syrian Arab Republic Show more JOIN THE FIGHT. HOLD POWER TO ACCOUNT. Donate Support from readers like you helps OCCRP expose organized crime and corruption around the world. By donating, you’ll be directly supporting investigative journalism as a public good. You’ll also gain access to exclusive insights and benefits. Donate RELATED REPORTING Dec 20, 2024 US AND UK SANCTION GEORGIAN OFFICIALS OVER CRACKDOWN ON PROTESTERS The U.S. and U.K. have imposed more sanctions on Georgian officials for violently suppressing protests in Tbilisi and... Dec 9, 2024 AZERBAIJAN DETAINS JOURNALISTS IN ESCALATING MEDIA CRACKDOWN Azerbaijan escalates its clampdown on independent media, detaining journalists on disputable charges of currency smuggling.... Dec 2, 2024 VIOLENCE AGAINST MEDIA ESCALATES DURING GEORGIA’S EU PROTEST CRISIS Journalists in Georgia have faced violence, arrests, and obstruction while covering protests sparked by the government's... Don't let them kill the story. We need your help to continue defending those who risk everything to tell stories in the public interest. Donate now Your cookie preferences We use cookies to improve your experience by storing data about your preferences, your device or your browsing session. We also use cookies to collect anonymized data about your behaviour on our websites, and to understand how we can best improve our services. To find our more details, view our Cookie Policy. 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