“For God’s sake, don’t hit me.” The cries and pleas of a tortured Syrian child from his kidnappers
The child Fawaz Muhammad Al-Qatifan
On Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published a short video clip of a kidnapped child being tortured and beaten in order to force his family to pay a large ransom in exchange for his return.
In the video, the 6-year-old child, Fawaz Muhammad Al-Qatifan, is shown being severely beaten with what appears to be a leather belt, lying on a bed, naked except for his underwear, crying and begging his kidnappers to stop beating him, saying: "It's (for) God don't hit me."
Unidentified persons kidnapped the child from the village of Ibta' in the countryside of Daraa Governorate, southern Syria.
Eyewitnesses had stated that masked men riding a motorcycle had intercepted the child and his brother on the second of November last year, on their way to school, to kidnap him and take him away to an unknown destination.
The value of the ransom demanded by the kidnappers is 500 million Syrian pounds, or about $150,000, in exchange for his release.
According to the observatory's sources, the kidnappers sent several video tapes of the child appealing to his parents, at different times.
In turn, activists in Daraa launched a hashtag bearing the title "#Save_the_Child_Fawaz_Al-Qatifan" to contribute to the search for the child Al-Qatifan and his return to his parents in the town of Ibta'.
Many social media pioneers interacted with the hashtag, expressing their solidarity with the child's family.
Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news
:
#Syrian,
#Child_Fawaz_Mohammed_Al-Qatifan,
#dara#,
#baby_spit,
#don't_hit me