Afrinpost
Thirty months after the kidnapping, Hamzat militia released last Wednesday 12/2/2020 the two sisters: Lonjin Muhammad Khalil Abdo (born 1995), a student, and her sister Rojin Muhammad Khalil Abdo (born 2001), who was 17 years old when she was kidnapped, according to what was published by the Kurdish Legal Authority on its Facebook website.
Identifying the two girls
There was talk about the kidnapped women after gunmen from Jaish al-Islam and settlers from Ghouta stormed the headquarters of the Hamzat militia (formerly the Asayish headquarter) near Kabasso restaurant in the city of Afrin on 05/28/2020 after violence and shootings killed a man and a child and injured others. And 11 girls were discovered in the Hamzat militia prison.
On 6/15/2020, Afrinpost published a report in which it revealed the identity of the two girls among the women who appeared in the leaked video clip from the prison of the “Hamza” militia, and that they were clearly seen without any doubt, and confirmed them by communicating with their relatives.
According to its sources, the website stated that the “Hamza” militia had been communicating with the families of the two girls in previous periods and asked them for 10 thousand euros for the release of the two girls and their father, “Muhammad Khalil Abdo” (the Jami family), who was also kidnapped and held by the militia elsewhere, and an attempt was made to defraud by collecting the “ransom money” money and keeping the three kidnappers.
It is noteworthy that the issue of kidnapped women received great attention and was included in most international human rights and media reports, including the report of the International Investigation Commission, which was issued on 9/14/2020.
Conflicting information
Subsequently, a huge uproar arose about the release of the kidnapped women, and then their trace disappeared amid the arrival of conflicting information, according to which “Hamza” militia had transferred them to their headquarters in Al-Bab, and a second story said that they were still in the basement of a villa occupied by “Hassan Al-Ubaid” in Basuta, and a third said that they were returned to the Asayish building in Afrin after the militia regained control of it. Meanwhile, fourth account said that the kidnapped women were driven into Turkish territory.
In its follow-up to the file, “Afrinpost” stated that communication between the two girls and their families was cut off after the kidnapped were transferred from the headquarters of the “Hamza” militia (formerly the Asayish building) to the headquarters of the “Military Police” militia in the “Commercial Secondary School” and from there to “Hamza” headquarters in Basuta village. And no information after that.
The settlers of Ghouta and the countryside of Damascus had issued a statement in which they mentioned the circumstances of the violence that took place, and requested clarification about the presence of naked women in the headquarters of the Hamza militia.
The kidnapping
With regard to the details of the kidnapping of the two girls, “Afrinpost” had previously published a report about it, according to which masked gunmen stormed the night of June 25, 2018, the house of citizen “Muhammad Khalil Abdo” (born in 1968) in “Domlia” village of “Mobata / Maabatli” area. They kidnapped him and his daughter, “Lonjin,” and took them to an unknown destination. Citizen Muhammad Khalil was accused at the time of collecting taxes in the industrial zone in Afrin in favor of the former Autonomous Administration, simply because he owned a workshop for maintenance of agricultural tractors in the industrial zone, while the pretext for kidnapping his daughter Lonjin was to obtain a driver’s license issued by the previous Autonomous Administration.
Exactly nine days after the kidnapping of Lonjin and her father, that is, on 4/7/2018, the masked gunmen returned and kidnapped the second girl, “Rojin Abdo,” and her uncle, “Kamal Khalil Abdo” (born in 1966), from their home in the old neighborhood of Afrin.
After six months, the kidnappers released the uncle Kamal, who was in poor health as a result of torture during the kidnapping period to the point where he did not remember anything, apparently without daring to reveal the reason for his kidnapping, the identity of the kidnappers, the circumstances and the location of his kidnapping, or the release, and it is likely that he was threatened. by the kidnappers if any information was provided. It is a method used by the militias of the Muslim Brotherhood, with its Syrian branch.
