Exclusive: How Syria's hard-line rebels turned against a human rights activist

The disappearance of Razan Zaitouneh and her colleagues has been one of the greatest mysteries of the Syrian war — until today. DW's investigative unit hunted clues across six countries to track down the perpetrators.

By the summer of 2013, documenting human rights abuses had become taboo even in rebelheld territories in Syria. But Razan Zaitouneh was steadfast.

The prominent human rights lawyer had just fled the capital, Damascus, due to the immense pressure placed on her work by the regime — and she wasn't prepared to stop it at the behest of armed men in rebelheld Douma, a small town on the outskirts of the capital.

That tenacity, however, would prove fateful.

Although the leaders of armed opposition groups had widely supported documenting atrocities committed by President Bashar Assad's forces, they viewed efforts to chronicle their own war crimes with open hostility.

Eventually, unknown assailants would kidnap Zaitouneh, her husband and two colleagues.

The number of possible witnesses has diminished in the eight years since. Some are threatened into silence, others have been killed, and even more are subject to routine intimidation. As a result, the abduction has remained one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the Syrian war — until today.

DW's investigative unit gathered evidence across six countries, spoke with dozens of witnesses with intimate knowledge of the case and tracked down the group most likely responsible for her disappearance.

Because of security concerns and fear of reprisal, DW has decided to keep the identities of its sources anonymous in most cases.

A hostile welcome

Within weeks of arriving in Douma in the spring of 2013, Zaitouneh had requested access to various prisons run by armed opposition groups to investigate claims that detainees were subject to torture.

Her efforts unsettled many in the town. Some even voiced concerns about her loyalty to the Syrian revolution — one of several uprisings against autocratic rule that swept across North Africa and the Middle East in 2011.

It was a critical moment for the human rights defender, who believed that the dignity of all humans was inviolable, and that all abuses demanded documentation and accountability.

"She was one of the first ones in the Syrian opposition to say we're not going to give the armed groups a free pass, even if they are fighting a greater evil," Nadim Houry, director of the Arab Reform Initiative and a friend of Zaitouneh's, tells DW.

One above all: Jaish al-Islam

Douma at the time was not only a battleground for rebels

and the regime. It was a town hotly contested by the "Islamic State," al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front and other militant forces vying for power.

One group stood head and shoulders above the rest: the ultraconservative Jaish al-Islam, Arabic for Army of Islam. Although the group proved instrumental in smuggling Zaitouneh and her husband into Douma, they eventually took issue with how she was conducting herself there.

"I myself advised Mrs. Razan that writing about the regime is a great ethical matter," Mohammed Alloush, the former political leader of Jaish al-Islam, tells DW.

"But, before writing reports about violations committed by opposition groups, I asked her to talk to them, give them advice and teach them about human rights."

That advice hardly seemed earnest. Zaitouneh was repeatedly denied access to rebel facilities, including those operated by Jaish al-Islam.

When she refused to back down, members of Jaish al-Islam took things a step further. They launched a social media campaign to discredit her, including making her out to be an immoral woman and likening her to a regime spy, according to several rebel and activist sources who were in Douma at the time.

Such allegations posed a major risk to Zaitouneh's safety. But the Violations Documentation Center, an aid organization she helped establish at the onset of the Syrian uprising, would continue to report on atrocities, regardless of the perpetrator.

'Why don't you kidnap her?'

By September 2013, efforts to stop her human rights work in Douma had become belligerent. That month, she received a threat letter and had shots fired at her door.

DW obtained an audio recording of a man who was ordered by a Jaish al-Islam associate to threaten Zaitouneh's life. He can be heard describing the interaction.

"He told me that this girl is an agent, and that she documents information about the Free Syrian Army (rebel alliance), writing reports to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, which could have us brought to court on charges of war crimes," the man says in the recording.

"I told him if she was an agent and working against the country, why don't you do something? Why don't you kidnap her? Are you afraid of her? He said, 'No, we are not afraid of her, we will bring her down, but for now we want to threaten her.'"

The man in the recording is referring to Hussein al-Shazly, a local security figure who later confessed to receiving direct orders from Jaish al-Islam's religious leader, Samir Kaakeh, according to rebel sources and a former Jaish al-Islam member present during his admission.

The sources told DW that alShazly, who maintained friendly ties with Jaish al-Islam, said he had threatened to kill Zaitouneh if she did not leave Douma "within days." Today, alShazly resides in the northern Syrian town of al-Baab under the protection of Jaish al-Islam.

Indeed, other groups had also targeted Zaitouneh for her work — but none with the unrelenting effort with which Jaish al-Islam did.

Gone without a trace

Around 10 p.m. on December 9, 2013, the kidnappers entered the offices of the Violations Documentation Center, where Zaitouneh lived with her husband, Wael Hammadeh. Two other friends, political activist Samira Khalil and lawyer Nazem Hammadi, were also present.

Hammadi was on a Skype call with his brother when the intruders broke in. He cut the call short in order to deal with the commotion, but one phrase stuck out before the line went dead.

"Enemies of God."

Little more is known about what took place that night. Neighbors reported hearing unknown men shouting. One person claimed to have seen a rebel leader drive off with the

Jaish al-Islam was once considered the strongest armed opposition group fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces. But years of hard fighting, siege and eventual evacuation to northern Syria have significantly weakened the group

Syrian human rights lawyer Razan Zaitouneh was forcefully disappeared