A court indictment by the Turkish prosecutors into the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian rebels has once again highlighted fears this week that sarin toxic gas was used by the opposition and not the Assad government.
The prosecutor in the Turkish city of Adana has issued a 132-page
indictment, alleging that six men of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra
Front and Ahrar ash-Sham tried to seek out chemicals with the
intent to produce the nerve agent, sarin gas, a number of Turkish
publications reported.
The main suspect in the case, 35-year-old Syrian-national Hytham
Qassap has been charged with “being a member of a terrorist
organization” and “attempting to acquire weapons for a
terrorist organization.” The other 5, all Turkish nationals
are being charged with “attempting to acquire weapons for a
terrorist organization.”
The indictment alleges that Qassap tried to setup a network in
Turkey in order to obtain chemical materials for the al-Nusra
Front and Ahrar al-Sham Brigades. Citing telephone calls made by
the cell, the prosecution believes that the group ordered at
least ten tons of chemicals, Al-Alam News Network reports.
The prosecution also dismissed claims that the suspects were
unaware of their wrong doing. “The claim that the suspects
didn’t know about the possibility of producing sarin nerve gas
from the chemicals they tried to buy is not true which was
established when they were testifying,” the document reads.
Meanwhile all six suspects have pleaded not guilty. “The
suspects have pleaded not guilty saying that they had not been
aware the materials they had tried to obtain could have been used
to make sarin gas. Suspects have been consistently providing
conflicting and incoherent facts on this matter,” the
indictment said.
If convicted, Qassab faces a 25 year prison sentence, while his
accomplices face 15 years prison terms.
The six men were a part of a group of 11 people arrested in their safe house in Adana on May 23,
2013. Their apprehension came about after surveillance by Turkish
police who’d received a tip that Syrian jihadists were trying to
acquire two government-regulated military-grade chemical
substances. Five of the detained were released from custody after
questioning, background checks and after lab tests proved that
chemicals seized during the arrest were not sarin gas.
The international community has long been ignoring worrying
reports that the rebel fighters in Syria might be capable of
carrying out a chemical attack. Russian President, Vladimir Putin
also reiterated this week that while no one doubts that poison
gas was indeed used in Syria, there is “every reason to
believe it was used not by the Syrian Army, but by opposition
forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign
patrons.”
Evidence that chemical weapons were used by the opposition was
also highlighted by the two European hostages that were freed from
Syrian rebel captivity last Sunday. In a phone conversation
overheard by hostage Pierre Piccinin da Prata, he said it was
clear the rebels used gas on civilians in an August 21 attack
near Damascus.
“I don’t think that Bashar Al-Assad and the Syrian government
are to blame for the chemical attack in Al-Ghouta,”Piccinin told RT. “It would have been absurd
for the Syrian government to use chemical weapons.”
The Syrian government has always rejected any accusations of
using chemical weapons. After one of the first alleged incidents
in Aleppo in March, it was the government that called on UN to
send in chemical experts. Another alleged chemical weapons use
was reported in Homs in December 2012.
Russian experts flew out to the site of the attack in March to
collect samples from the incident. On 9 July 2013, Moscow
submitted the results of its inquiry into the use of chemical
weapons at Aleppo to the United Nations. Russian scientists
analyzing the 19 March 2013 attack found that it was most likely
launched by opposition forces, and not the
Syrian government.
“It was determined that on March 19 the rebels fired an
unguided missile Bashair-3 at the town of Khan al-Assal, which
has been under government control. The results of the analysis
clearly show that the shell used in Khan al-Assal was not factory
made and that it contained sarin,” UN envoy Vitaly Churkin
has said.
The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria
into the attack in March concluded that no evidence of the use of
sarin by Syria’s government troops has so far been uncovered. The
lead investigator, Carla Del Ponte, did hint that it was the
rebels that most likely used the chemical
weapons.
“The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic wishes to clarify that it has not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties to the conflict. As a result, the Commission is not in a position to further comment on the allegations at this time,” the statement read.
Meanwhile, the UN chemical weapons inspection team has completed
the report on the latest chemical attack in Syria on August 21
and will deliver it to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon over the
weekend.
"I believe that the report will be an overwhelming report that
chemical weapons (were) used, even though I cannot publicly say
at this time before I receive this report," Moon said.
Although the team was not authorized to draw any conclusions on
who was the perpetrator of the attack, a number of US officials
speaking to the media on condition of anonymity over the last
couple of days indicated that the report would hint the Assad
government was responsible.