In Commemoration of – Abdullah Luay Hassan

Abdullah – A mother’s heart whose only pulse was kidnapped

Abdullah was the only son, the only heartbeat of a mother who devoted her life to him, and the constant support of his sister in every detail of her days. A young man of 25 years old, his small family held all their dreams in his eyes and pinned their great hopes on his future, waiting for the day when they would see the fruits of his labour and diligence. He finished his studies at the Faculty of Law in June 2024, and was standing on the threshold of a new life, holding in his hand the certificate of years of toil, and in his heart a sincere desire to create his future with the balance of truth and justice. But his journey has not yet begun. Life did not open the doors of work for him, and he did not taste the success he dreamed of. All his dreams were snatched away by a treacherous bullet, before he knew the meaning of the first step. He was about to take off, but the bullets were faster and extinguished him before he could light the way

The last moments before the massacre

Abdullah did not think about himself, but grabbed his mother and sister by the hand and walked them towards the house of his grandfather, Ali Hussein Daoud, a well-known and beloved professor, a man who had long been considered a symbol of tranquility in Baniyas. He thought it was safe there… He thought that good family names and pure hearts would protect him from the winds of injustice and there he met his uncles Firas and Musab Daoud . They arrived home and closed the doors behind them, not to escape, but to seek peace. Little did they know that the doors that closed on their fear would open minutes later to a nightmare unlike any other.

The guests who carried death

Knocking on the door and strange voices claiming to search for weapons or “wanted persons”. Some looked at each other with confidence: “We have nothing to fear.” They opened the door by saying: “Come in, the house is your home.” Little did they know that death was standing just beyond the threshold. A group of armed men entered, their eyes cold, as if they had never known the meaning of mercy. They shot into the ground between the legs of those sitting, spreading panic in the place, then took the young men for “interrogation”, swearing that they would return in a few minutes.

The question that fires bullets

Abdullah and a group of neighbors  were taken to a neighboring house, where they were asked only one question: “Sunni or Alawite?” A question that in an instant became a death sentence, with no trial and no charge other than affiliation. A bullet pierced his forehead before he could finish his sentence. He died instantly, and two other young men from the neighbourhood fell next to him in a merciless scene.

Abdullah … justice unfulfilled

Abdullah graduated from law school to carry the banner of justice, to be a defender of the oppressed, not a martyr to injustice itself. He did not complete his journey, he did not enter a courtroom, he did not carry a case, but he became the case. He did not think that the justice he loved would fail him, or that the law he studied would not protect him from bullets that do not know the meaning of law.