Syrian Orient TV news team kidnapped by IS turn up in regime prison 9 years on

In the early hours of 25 July 2013, three staff members from the Syrian opposition TV station Orient News disappeared. The team consisted of Obaida Batal, a journalist, Abboud Ateeq, a cameraman, and Hussam Nizamuddin, a broadcast technician. To this day, their exact fate remains unknown.

Lucky escape

Their colleague, broadcast engineer Ahmad Barbour, narrowly missed sharing their fate. The team were supposed to pick him up from Anadan, a town 12 km from Aleppo, the morning of their disappearance. He was filming an episode of a Ramadan series they were working on so, when the team didn’t show up, he tried calling them but none of them answered the phone. 

Initially assuming they had simply gone to work without him, he received a call later that morning from the father of another one of his colleagues, Ahmed Saied (later murdered by Islamic State militants). Saied’s father complained that his farmstead in Miskan village was a mess. He had given permission for the team to reside there and berated Barbour about his colleagues’ neglect.

"IS had kidnapped several local journalists and activists in the region before this incident"

Barbour headed to the farm. The team’s SNG van was gone, and the house was in a state of chaos, clothes strewn everywhere. When Barbour discovered the team’s spare equipment was missing, he realised his colleagues hadn’t gone to work - they wouldn’t have needed it that day. He knew then that they had either been kidnapped or arrested, and the equipment had been seized.

Searching the premises, Barbour found the team’s portable 3G device close by, just south of the farm. Although an Islamic State cell was active nearby, in the village of Ratyan some way south, Barbour didn’t go there to ask about his colleagues, fearing for his safety: IS had kidnapped several local journalists and activists in the region before this incident. Instead, Barbour immediately informed Orient TV’s management about what had happened.

Abdo Madkhana, one of Orient TV’s directors who was working with the team at the time, recalled that while he never heard of any threats against them, “they never took security precautions. Obaida and the others would go out day and night and everyone knew where they were."

Suspicious behaviour

Soon afterwards, another incident would point to IS involvement. A week after the team’s disappearance, an IS leader in Anadan known as Abu Aisha warned Barbour to leave the area immediately. Barbour was told an IS unit was preparing to raid his home and kidnap him, and that Abu Aisha had held them off, but it was only a matter of time until they received permission move forward with the raid.

Barbour says Abu Aisha denied any knowledge of his team’s kidnapping. Barbour quickly packed and left his home for Saraqib. Shortly afterwards, his house was raided by masked men who questioned his mother about his whereabouts before leaving.

A clue

Several months later in 2014, war broke out between IS and the opposition factions in Idlib and the northwest of Syria. As IS retreated from these areas, the conflict spilled into Aleppo province, as militant factions sought to expel IS from there too.

Akram Hasanato, one of the al-Tawhid brigade commanders - the opposition faction leading operations against IS in Aleppo at that time - was interviewed live on air by Orient TV on 27 April 2014 about the fighting. He told reporters that his brigade had found media equipment in a building IS had been using as a headquarters before their expulsion. At that time, Barbour was still working with Orient TV, and upon seeing the interview he travelled to have a look at the equipment. According to him, it all belonged to the SNG van that had vanished along with the team.

IS denial

To date, IS has refused to admit to having kidnapped the team. The then commander of the al-Tawhid brigade approached several IS headquarters in Aleppo and Idlib in the months after the kidnapping asking about the team, but his questions were met with silence. As battles between the opposition factions and IS continued, IS presence in Idlib and Aleppo weakened, with the bulk of their forces retreating towards Raqqa province.

Conflicting accounts, no documentation

On 11 April 2016, Syrian opposition news site Zaman Al-Wasl stated it had obtained documents dating back to 2014 concerning an IS prison north of Raqqa where several journalists were held. The documents detailed the detention of Mauritanian Sky News journalist, Isaac Mukhtar, who had been kidnapped alongside Lebanese cameraman Samir Kassab and their driver from Azaz, north of Aleppo, in October 2013 – a few months after the Orient team’s kidnapping.

Zaman Al-Wasl said it appeared an Orient TV journalist was also imprisoned there. Though his name wasn’t mentioned, the news agency believed him to be Obaida Batal. George Haddad, a public relations officer at Zaman Al-Wasl confirmed to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the documentation had been handed to the UN after being subject to a rigorous verification process and deemed authentic, and that it had confirmed the presence of an Orient TV journalist inside the prison.

Tracking rumours

In the period that followed, conflicting rumours arose. One suggested the team had been executed, and another that they had been transferred from an IS prison in Raqqa to another in Deir ez-Zor. In late 2016 the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) declared war on IS, vowing to expel it from Raqqa, supported by a US-led coalition. Airstrikes heavily targeted IS headquarters and prisons.

In late 2017, IS was defeated and withdrew from Raqqa. The battle had claimed nearly 1,600 lives, according to Amnesty International. Whether this number included prisoners wasn’t specified. However, some intelligence suggested IS had transferred detainees to Mosul, Iraq when their stronghold in Raqqa had been attacked.

"The last we heard was that they were handed over by the Iraqi government to the Syrian regime, and are in Sednaya prison, north of Damascus"

As the battle for Raqqa was raging, the Iraqi government declared war against IS in Mosul, announcing the defeat of IS in the city in July 2017. In March, Iraqi government forces had taken control of Badush prison, west of Mosul, which had been under IS control. The fate of the detainees was not revealed but news quickly spread about mass graves left by IS close to the prison – most of whom were believed to be Iraqis executed when IS seized control of Mosul in 2014.

In Mosul

Several months later, on 10 February 2018, Orient TV suddenly announced that its team had been kidnapped by IS and had been detained in Mosul prison in Iraq. The news agency stated that it had tried to clarify the facts with the Iraqi interior ministry but had received no response to its questions.

Nabil Salim, a former Orient TV Operations Manager, stated that Orient TV had “corresponded with the Iraqi government and international humanitarian and journalistic institutions to press for the release of our colleagues but to no avail…the last we heard was that they were handed over by the Iraqi government to the Syrian regime, and are in Sednaya prison, north of Damascus”.

From Mosul to Damascus

Amer Batal, Obaida’s brother, said to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed: “We sold all our possessions and spent all our savings to obtain documented information proving whether they are alive or dead – but it was all in vain."

It appeared that the team was in Sednaya prison but documentary proof was lacking. However, a former inmate at Sednaya had confirmed Obaida was there, and a lawyer working with Ateeq’s family had confirmed the team were in a Syrian regime prison. He said that the team were “fine” but Obaida was ill and had been admitted to hospital several times. The lawyer further stated, “it will be impossible to get them out of prison except through a prisoner exchange – I tried through bribes and mediators, but it is impossible."

Sentenced to death

However, further details have emerged that shed some light on the harrowing fate of the team from the lawyer and others who worked with the families, which point to the following: The team were arrested by Air Force Intelligence in the Aleppo countryside in the village of Miskan. They were referred to a military field court and sentenced to death on 7 January 2019 whilst held in Sednaya prison. However, to date it is still unknown whether this sentence has been carried out.

"Whatever the origins of Obaida, Ateeq and Nizamuddin’s abduction, their fate today is in the hands of the Syrian regime and its security services"

Despite these revelations, IS is still viewed by many as the main suspect in the Orient TV team’s original kidnapping. However, while many factors point to this, documentary proof has never been obtained. In the end, it seems clear that whatever the origins of Obaida, Ateeq and Nizamuddin’s abduction, their fate today is in the hands of the Syrian regime and its security services.

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition. To read the original article click here. 

Original article published on 25 October 2021.

Translated by Rose Chacko