Free Syrian Army sniper killed by his victim’s brother in Turkey

MERSİN

Police found Muhammad Saleh’s corpse in an orange grove in the Karaisalı neighborhood of Mersin on Jan. 8. He had been stabbed in the back nine times, his throat had been slit and his head had been skinned. He was identified by his fingerprints during the autopsy. DHA photos

A man who once fought as a sniper for the Free Syrian Army (FSA) was killed in southern Turkey four months ago by the brother of one his victims, whom he ran into coincidentally while trying to flee to Germany, Turkish authorities have revealed.

According to the Turkish prosecutor’s indictment seen by Doğan News Agency, 30-year-old Mohammad Saleh had been fighting in the ranks of the FSA during the earlier stages of the Syrian civil war. After the conflict worsened, he crossed the border with his family and settled in the southern Turkish province of Mersin last year.

On Jan. 3, Saleh met a human trafficker named Abdulrazak Dakka in Mersin and paid him $5,500 and 1000 euros to transport himself and his family from Turkey to Germany. 

Saleh’s wife reported to Turkish police on the same day that her husband was missing and could have been killed for his money by human traffickers that he had met.  

Saleh was indeed killed by people led by Dakka, but not for his money. As a matter of fact, the human trafficker was the elder brother of a Syrian who was killed by Salih during his sniper days.

Police found Saleh’s corpse in an orange grove in the Karaisalı neighborhood of Mersin on Jan. 8. He had been stabbed in the back nine times, his throat had been slit and his head had been skinned. He was identified by his fingerprints during the autopsy.

‘Injured brother’ used for duping

Prosecutors said Dakka and his relatives did not kill Saleh on the same day they met for the first time. 

On Jan. 4, Saleh cancelled the agreement with Dakka and took his money back. The next day, Dakka called him by phone and offered to take him to Mersin State Hospital, claiming that Saleh’s brother was wounded in Syria and taken there for treatment. It was a lie.

Dakka and his relative, Ibrahim Hallak, took Saleh in their cars and stabbed him there before skinning him to make it harder for his corpse to be identified. Two suspected accomplices then helped them clean the car, while another suspect did not inform the police despite knowing about the murder, according to prosecutors.


Dakka and Hallak, as well as Fadia Rawas who was accused as an accomplice in the “revenge murder,” were recently arrested by the 4th Heavy Penal Court in Mersin, which accepted the indictment. 

The main suspects, who pleaded not guilty, will be tried with aggravated life sentences, while the two other suspects were released pending trial.