[ad_1]
Omar al-Aroub, the current second-in-command in a Syrian pro-regime militia accused of war crimes travelled to Paris in August 2023 and received an official welcome as head of the Syrian Paralympic Committee. Our team identified images of al-Aroub armed and in uniform, wearing the logo of the Ba’ath Brigades. A man with links to al-Aroub confirmed his role in the brutal repression of anti-regime protests in Aleppo in 2011.
Issued on:
5 min
Omar al-Aroub posted a photo of himself standing in front of the Eiffel Tower on August 31, 2023. Al-Aroub, who has close links to Syria’s ruling family, the Assads, is also second-in-command of a pro-regime militia called the Ba’ath Brigades, which has been accused of war crimes.
He also happens to be the head of the Syrian Paralympic Committee. Between August 24 and 29, 2023, the heads of national Paralympic committees held a meeting in Paris.
The official website of the Olympics confirms that Syria has a team that will participate in the international event, set to be held in Paris in July and August 2024.
Officials with Paris 2024, the official name of the upcoming Olympic games, told French media outlet TF1 info that Omar al-Aroub had indeed participated in the meeting. They claimed they had only just “discovered the allegations against him”.
The Ba’ath Brigades, the military branch of Assad’s Ba’ath party
Shocked to see al-Aroub strolling around Paris, a number of Syrian opposition media outlets based in Europe circulated images of al-Aroub, showing him in military uniform and wearing the badge of the Ba’ath Brigades. None of these photos were posted on his own accounts.
The FRANCE 24 Observers team was also able to find images of al-Aroub published on Facebook in 2018 by fighters with the Ba’ath Brigades. These photos show al-Aroub wearing a military uniform with the…
[ad_2]
