Syria's official press named five men whom the authorities said were responsible for the murder of a Kurdish religious leader, Sheikh Mohammad Maashuk Khaznawi, who went missing last month. "Security forces arrested two members of this gang which carried out the crime of kidnapping and assassinating Sheikh Khaznawi," who was buried Wednesday, said the Tishrin government daily. It named them as Yassin Matar Hindi, 43, a Damascus employee of the state electricity authority, and Mohammad Matar Abdullah, 36, prayer leader of a mosque in Hassakeh, northeast Syria.Three other members of the gang are on the run, it said, giving their names as Ismail Kadri Malla, also from Hassakeh, Samir Tlaigeh from Aleppo, north of Damascus, and Said Haidaleh from Deir Ezzor. On Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said all five had been arrested. Despite the official version, Amnesty International said Khaznawi was "at least the sixth Syrian Kurd to have died as a result of torture and ill-treatment since March 2004." The 46-year-old religious leader "died on May 30, 20 days after he 'disappeared,' apparently detained by Syrian military intelligence at an unknown location," the rights group said. It called for Syrian authorities to launch "an immediate, independent investigation".
| On the other hand, given AI's recent pronouncements on nearly every subject under the sun, I'd consider the matter far from settled. |