Syrian Boy, 15, Executed by Al-Qaeda Jihadists for Not Giving Coffee on Credit
Muhammed Qatta, 15-year-old, was publicly executed in the northern province of Aleppo on Sunday by the Al-Qaeda front-group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. The 15-year-old Syrian boy was accused of blasphemy as he used the Prophet's Mohammed's name in disrespected manner.
Qatta was working at his coffee stand in Aleppo. He was subjected to the jihadits rebels' fury when he was overheard saying that he will not give coffee on credit "even if Mohammad comes back to life." This phrase was viewed as blasphemy and a valid ground for rebels to execute him.
Witnesses recalled that three armed men arriving in a black car and abducted the boy. His mother recalled that one of the three men looked like Syrian while the two others spoke with foreign accents. The men got the boy on Saturday and came back on Sunday, the boy with bruises and wounds due to obvious torture.
According to reports the jihadist rebels killed the boy through shooting him in the head and neck using an automatic rifle. Before firing the shot, the rebels declared that "taking the name of the Prophet in vain was a sin and that others who did so would be similarly punished."
Qatta was executed before the presence of his own parents.
In a video of the interview with Qatta's mother, the grieving mother cannot help himself from wailing. "They killed him in front of me. May God take revenge on them. I asked why they killed him. We are with neither side (in Syria's conflict). We just look after ourselves. Why did you kill my son? Is he a terrorist?"
According to Al Jazeera, the phrase ""even if Mohammad comes back to life." Is a common phrase used by Syrians. Hence, officials and government groups condemned the horrifying deed by the jihadist rebels.
The National Coalition, Syria's main opposition, said that it condemned "every act that violates the Syrian people's values and the principles of the (mainstream rebel) Free Syrian Army." The National Coalition gave warning "that anyone who committed war crimes or breached treaties and international conventions would stand trial regardless of who they are."
The Observatory, followed suit, declaring that it also condemned the execution of the 15-year-old Syrian boy as "criminal and a gift to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad."
The Observatory director, Rami Abdel Rahman said, "This kind of criminality is exactly what makes people in Syria fear the fall of regime. Those who executed the boy were not Syrian. A member of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria spoken to by an Observatory activist said the boy deserved to die for having blasphemed."
Aleppo province had been victims of the violence of different rebel groups, some of them Islamist. These rebel groups made their own set of rules and justice systems which were imposed within the areas they seized.
A lot of anti-human rights groups and mainstream opposition were critical of the punishments these rebel groups had imposed upon the people, but sadly, all efforts went down to drain.