Syria's interior minister Anas Khattab announced that Amjad Youssef was captured in the countryside about 30 miles (50km) outside the city of Hama following a carefully executed security operation. Youssef is one of the most prominent suspects in the Tadamon massacre, the slaughter of an estimated 288 civilians, including 12 children, in a southern Damascus neighbourhood in 2013.
The massacre was documented in videos taken by the killers themselves and leaked to researchers in Europe. More than two dozen videos showed uniformed Syrian army officials working with pro-government militiamen to lead groups of blindfolded civilians to the edge of a pit, forcing them inside and then shooting them dead. The bodies were burned and buried using a bulldozer. A whistleblower discovered the videos on a government laptop and secretly passed them to activists in Paris. The activists sent the videos to researchers Annsar Shahhoud and Prof Uğur Ümit Üngör from the University of Amsterdam and the NIOD Institute. Shahhoud and Üngör identified the location, victims, and perpetrators, including alleged ringleader Amjad Youssef, dubbed 'the shadow man'. The Guardian published excerpts of the videos in 2022.
Amjad Youssef was captured in the countryside about 30 miles (50km) outside the city of Hama and had 'been taken into custody following a carefully executed security operation'.
Shahhoud found a Facebook page belonging to Amjad Youssef and posed as a pro-Assad researcher to interview him. After the Guardian's report, the US state department and EU announced sanctions against Youssef, and France commenced a war-crimes investigation.
Mugshots released by the ministry showed Youssef in a striped prison uniform. Videos circulated on social media showing Youssef in custody, his face bloodied, being sworn at and slapped by uniformed men. News of Youssef's arrest was greeted with joy in Tadamon, with mass celebrations expected after Friday prayers. It remains unclear what specific charges Youssef will face, whether he will be tried in Syria or internationally, and what the current status of the French war-crimes investigation is. Other suspects in the Tadamon massacre may still be at large.