Washington. Rights groups and experts say
a leading commander of a Syrian Islamist armed group who was recently arrested in France was involved in torture and war crimes against civilians in Syria.
Majdi Mustafa Nameh, commonly known as Islam Alloush, was arrested last week in the French city of Marseille on charges related to torture, war crimes and complicity in forced disappearances, according to French news agency AFP.
A former captain in the Syrian army, Alloush had a leading role in establishing Jaysh al-Islam, an extremist rebel group based near the Syrian capital, Damascus. He was the spokesman of the group until 2017.