Reports | 7 11 2016
"Do not talk about politics .. Walls have ears", a sentence that was repeated a lot among Syrians during the last forty years, fearing that the speech would reach the intelligence agencies’ ears!
"Issam" was arrested in the State Security Branch of Aleppo, after an intelligent report has been written on him, for "insulting the senior leadership in the country."
Issam who lives currently in the Turkish city of Istanbul, says: "I’ve said only one sentence jokingly, during a meeting with my friends: (The president is good, but people around him are bad), so I was arrested in the State Security Branch 4 days after that prank, which costed me 5 months of my life in the prison."
What is the malicious reports?
During the reign of Hafez Assad 1971-2000, and his son Bashar after him; Syrians were avoiding speaking in political issues in their meetings, because of the "finks" who work for the intelligence agencies affiliated with the Syrian Regime.
A little smile was enough to cause the absence of Abdulrahman for 9 months and a half in the Military Security Branch.
"I met a girl who was a colleague in the University of Baath 3 years ago, and after several days she told me that she fell in love with me and she wanted to start a relationship with me", Abdulrahman said.
The twenty-three-year-old-man confirmed that he denied that relationship, under the pretext of the social and religious differences between him and her, so she wrote an intelligent report on him, claiming that he supports the opposition through his own account on Facebook, and he was arrested by the Military Security Branch in Homs, and he stayed there for 9 months.
Abdulrahman added: "During the investigation, the detective told me that the same girl has offered an authenticated report on my Facebook’s activities in supporting the opposition", explaining that he had never expressed any political opinion, neither on Facebook, nor in real life, but the report was written by the girl out of revenge".
Official and patriot informers
In Syria, you may find the fink everywhere, where he can be sorted to a governmental institution as an employee, to trace the employees there and know more about them, and this one called "Official Fink", because this is his basic job in life.
And there are the "Unofficial Finks", who are citizens work as finks for many reasons: The financial motivation comes on top with other political goals, like belonging to a political party, while other finks may work in this field in order to protect themselves from detention or to gain authority within his or her society.
After the Eighties’ Events and the fierce clashes between the Syrian Regime Forces and the Muslim Brotherhood, the Syrian regime started gathering and polarizing citizens to let them engage in the Intelligent Sector, under many titles, including: Homeland Security, or belonging to the Baath Party, and it started tracing citizens whose loyalty is in doubt.
You may meet finks everywhere in Syria without knowing that they are finks, he maybe your co-worker or the cleaner in your neighborhood, or maybe the grocer under your house, or your building guard.
Manal was a victim of this policy, where she was ended up in the prison because of a jangle with her co-worker in the Electric Department in Damascus.
Manal said to Rozana: "I spent 14 days in the detention weeks before my wedding, after an intelligent report was written on me by my co-worker, after a jangle developed into a quarrel, what prompt her to write the report out of revenge."
Verification after detentions
During the conversation with Manal, she introduced us to her friend, who spent 2 months and 17 days in a security branch, after a report was written on her on the charges of "Communications with Terrorists".
Amal who is 29-year-old, said to Rozana: "After spending 2 months in the prison, they came to a result that there is no communication between me and militants and it was a hoax, so they hand me over to the Terrorism Court, which in turn sentenced my innocence."
The young lade added that there are a good number of security reports that are baseless and completely unfounded, noting that there are two strategies in dealing with these reports, first: the rate of adopting those reports is up to the finks’ sincerity through dealing with him for a long time, second: by verifying what was stated in the report, through a prolong investigation with the accused person, which may continue for months.
Attempts for accountability
With the increasing phenomenon of writing the malicious reports, the Syrian parliament is trying to limit this phenomenon.
Nabil Saleh, a member in the Syrian parliament, wrote on his Facebook account on 30 August: "We discussed the matter with the National Security Committee, about how to save good citizens from the wicked and spiteful people who write the malicious security reports against Syrian citizens."
Saleh considered that those finks have ruined the work of the Security Institutions and denigrated it, and that this is an act of deception, saying: "most people think that workers in the security institutions are wicked."
The lawyer Kamal Omar in Istanbul city, has another opinion about the issue, where he confirms to Rozana: "If the Syrian parliament is really serious about this step, so why do not they end the finks’ work forever?"
Omar explained: "it is very hard to verify these reports reaching the intelligence agencies without calling up the accused people and questioning them because there is no specific technic can always prove the informers' sincerity."