The Syria expert: The group used to be proud of these executions • Video from 2015 has been given new life
Video clips from 2015 that have found new life on social media show how Syria’s current Minister of JusticeShadi Al-Waisi, oversees the executions of two women accused of prostitution.
Despite the fact that the clips are old, they could mean big problems for the country’s current government, according to Aron Lund, who is a Middle East analyst at FOI.
– The group has tried to perfume themselves as best they can and then someone comes and throws out these old stink bombs again. It is a huge political problem, he says.
The two videos are said to be from 2015 and depict public executions of two women. In one of the clips, the accused woman asks to see her children one last time before she is forced to her knees. Surrounded by the man identified as Shadi Al-Waisi and several other men, she is shot in the head.
Can have major consequences
The cliff could have major consequences for Syria’s government, which is trying to get sanctions relief and more aid to the country, according to Aron Lund, Middle East analyst at the Total Defense Research Institute (FOI).
– In the past, the group, which includes Al-Waisi, was proud of these executions. But now it is a charm offensive against the United States, other Western countries and Syria. They try to show their soft side and show that ‘we have changed. We are not what we once were so listen to what we say now instead’.
– It is politics, of course. But this old stuff is documented on the internet everywhere, which becomes a problem, says Lund.
More clips may surface
According to him, most Syrians already know the group to which the current Minister of Justice belongs, its background and original views. And the two clips on the women are far from the only similar films expected to resurface.
– I think this will complicate their efforts to be removed from terrorist lists and to have the sanctions against Syria and against themselves asserted. I don’t think this particular single clip will be decisive now, but there will be many drops that erode that rock and this is one such drop.