Cracks and defections in judicial sector of Headquarters for Al-Sham Liberation

What is known as the Headquarters for the Liberation of Al-Sham – a terrorist group in the Idlib governorate in northern Syria – affiliated with the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, has been witnessing a state of rift and splits, especially the judicial sector inside it, due to the leadership struggles and political changes taking place in the Syrian arena.

The most prominent leaders in the judicial sector of the body called Ali Abdullah Al-Turki which is known as Abu Bakr Huritan was killed after an explosive device targeted his car in the city of Kafr Takharim in the northern Idlib countryside, and he was heading to the court accompanied by a writer.

This assassination of the incident comes, a week after Bassam Zioni, head of the General Shura Council of the Headquarters for Al-Sham Liberation in the Idlib governorate, announced his resignation from the council without mentioning the reasons, indicating that he will clarify it at a later time.

Likewise, member of the Shura Council, Jamal Zainia, Abu Malik Al-Tali, announced his resignation from the council, but he withdrew from the resignation, after talking about mediation by leaders and legal people in the Shura Council.

These were preceded by the defection of 6 leaders from the authority during the last period, due to the policies of al-Jolani, perhaps the most prominent of them, Abu al-Yazqan al-Masry, Abu Malik al-Tali, Abu Talha al-Mayssir, Abu al-Abd al-Ashdah, Abdullah al-Muhsini and Musleh al-Aliani.

According to a report published by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, pertaining to the judiciary within the Headquarters for Al-Sham Liberation, the cracks in this sector are suffering, due to the involvement of the authority’s leader, Abu Muhammad al-Julani in many corruption and bribery cases.

If the Observatory said, “The Golani uses the judiciary in the way that achieves its interests. The judiciary in the authority is following the law of the Golani who enacts and legislates it, and this is why a large number of leaders in this sector were indignant about the policies of their leader, until they were forced to resign from the commission.”

Cracks and splits

The Headquarters for Al-Sham Liberation is currently suffering from a crisis of splits and disputes within it, and these crises began after the fighting with armed factions, during January 2017 in Idlib.

The battles were repeated in the beginning of 2018, as the organization, being the most powerful in the Syrian north, managed to expel the factions from large areas in Idlib, and the authority controls the most important commercial crossings, as it has control over more than 60 percent of the land, while other factions, led by what is known as the Ahrar al-Sham Movement are spreading in limited areas.

In addition, the policies pursued by its leader, Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, whether by fighting with other factions, or forcibly imposing the policies of his body on it, caused a retreat to the organization, along with a number of factions splitting from it, including one known as the Soldiers of Epics.