the heavy past of the new Minister of Justice resurfaces in execution videos

In two videos dated 2015 circulating on social media and which could be authenticated, Shadi al-Waisi supervises the execution of women accused of prostitution.

Syrian Justice Minister under fire Two videos that were able to be authenticated by the Verify platform are causing a stir in Syria: they show Judge Shadi al-Waisi, current HTS Minister of Justice, supervising the execution of two women accused of prostitution in 2015 in Idlib, administered by a jihadist group.

The images are chilling: a young woman in a niqab is kneeling on the tarmac, surrounded by armed men. We are in the province of Idlib, administered by the Front al-Nusra, the ancestor of HTS. The man identified as Shadi al-Waisi pronounces a death sentence for prostitution and signals to the executioner.

The second video shows him inflexible, Kalashnikov in hand, facing another woman, who does not ask to be spared, just to see her children one last time, “one last time, my brothers”, she begs. But she is forced to kneel, before being coldly shot in the head, while the hooded al-Nusra front fighters give thanks to God.

Calls for resignation are increasing on social networks. An official, on condition of anonymity, confirms that it is indeed the new Minister of Justice, but assures that “it was another time“, another region, Idlib, where Sharia law then reigned, and that “this chapter is closed“. Before promising with the new authorities justice and the rule of law. For the moment, the Syrian leader, the Islamist Ahmad al-Chareh, remains silent.