“I hated sports after my brother’s murder”

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  منصة مساحة 29/11/2021

There was only one week between Sami’s kidnapping and his beheading at the hand of ISIS. Sami’s mother died of grief for her son, and his brother bears painful memories. Seven players of a football team were beheaded and the bodies were buried in a location which remains unknown until now; the ISIS murdered many people in the month of Ramadan.

The victim’s kidnapping

It is the month of Ramadan; Sami, in his twenties, and his brother, Saleh, sell licorice and tamarind for living – both of them are football players and goalkeepers for Al-Shabab Club in Raqqa city. On the 29^th day of Ramadan, specifically on Friday, a masked patrol of ISIS kidnapped Sami and six of his companions in the club, and took them to an unknown location. Mahmoud, Sami’s brother, says: “Our efforts to reach their location failed. We were unable to know where ISIS took them and where they imprisoned them.”

Only one week is the period between their abduction and their beheading at the hands of ISIS. Many charges were brought against them, including collaboration with the International Coalition. While Mahmoud was at work, one of his friends called him to tell him the news of the beheading of his brother and his friends at the vegetable market near the Dalla Roundabout, a square in the center of Raqqa city where ISIS carried out executions. Mahmoud rushed to the execution field, but he did not find any body. ISIS had taken all the bodies to an unknown location. Mahmoud only saw blood dripping onto the ground and the names of the players hung on one of the walls in the street.

The funeral tent

Mahmoud went to the ISIS headquarters in Raqqa, trying to bring the body of his brother Sami. His request was rejected, and he was threatened not to visit the headquarters again. Then Mahmoud tried to find out the place where his brother’s body was buried; he reached to a person within ISIS, who told Mahmoud to come the second day at night to show him the location of the body. Mahmoud woke up the next morning to find that the same person was also beheaded by ISIS and his body was hung in the same place where the players were murdered. Mahmoud lost hope of reaching Sami’s body, so he decided to set up a funeral tent to mourn his brother’s death. However, ISIS did not allow the family to set up the tent either. “Not only they forbade us from setting up the mourning tent, but also the entire neighborhood was surrounded by masked elements of ISIS, and everyone who visited us to offer condolences was subject to arrest,” says Mahmoud.

Sami was married and two days before his execution, he had a newborn child. But ISIS was the reason for this child to grow up without a father. The wheel of misfortune for this family did not stop there; Sami’s mother died of grief, and Sami’s younger brother, who was a minor, was kidnapped for nine months. He was released from ISIS prison with a mental illness. Mahmoud says: “When my little brother was released, he brought many accusations against us, he was brainwashed by the ISIS. We had to stay by his side and stay up all night, taking turns, so that he wouldn’t kill a family member. This lasted for months until my brother recovered.”

Saleh, Sami’s coach, brother and father

Saleh is two years older than Sami, he trained him in goalkeeping. Saleh was Sami’s coach, he was also viewed as his father. Saleh traveled with Sami wherever his team was going; Saleh was there when Sami was kidnapped. But he did not see Sami after that. Because of a spiteful report in favor of ISIS, seven players were beheaded in a public square before peoples’ eyes; they were all good friends and they came from the same football club.

Saleh says: “How can you forget someone you helped grow up as your child all your life, and then you lose him forever. I hated football and sports ever since, I can’t go to the stadium because his memories are everywhere. I suffered a brain stroke grieving for my brother, and I developed diabetes.”

The family was constantly harassed

Execution and arrests did not satisfy the executioner. The harassment was constant, and threats were chasing the brothers. Saleh was arrested several times on various charges, and he underwent almost 35 Sharia courses, (the detainees are subject to Sharia courses, each session is ten days, during which the detainees are taught the lessons of the Qur’an and the principles of the Islamic religion; these are compulsory courses). Then the entire family was expelled from the city to the countryside. Saleh was subjected to a series of arrests and interrogation by a Saudi-national ISIS emir; he was threatened that he would be decapitated if he continued to escape ISIS patrols.

Squares in Raqqa city center have witnessed the killing of hundreds of young men. Many families have suffered a lot from ISIS oppression; in every street there is a story and, in every house, there is pain and sorrow.

“They [ISIS] forced the children who attended the execution to play with the players’ heads like a ball,” says Saleh.