Fadi Saqr denies involvement in Syria massacres as families of disappeared demand justice

A former commander of the deposed Syrian regime's National Defence Forces militia has denied involvement in the 2013 Tadamon massacre, amid rising public anger over the rehabilitation of officers accused of crimes against civilians during the civil war.

In comments published by The New York Times on Thursday, Saqr claimed that he had been appointed as head of the militia after the Syrian regime committed a massacre in which 288 people were killed on the Damascus neighbourhood, where 288 people were killed.

"The state was clear with me from the beginning: If the Ministry of Interior had any evidence against me, I wouldn’t be working with them today" he said.

"I will submit myself to whatever the judiciary decides," he added, saying that he was not granted an amnesty by the government.

Saqr's rehabilitation has sparked outrage in Syria, where the government has attempted to prevent outbreaks of revenge attacks and extrajudicial killings since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government in December.

Fadel Abdul Ghani, director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), slammed the move to rehabilitate Saqr and other regime officers as a "grave mistake" saying that their cases should have been "dealt with by an independent judiciary, not political committees".

Families of Syrians killed and disappeared by the Assad regime have rallied against the government's release of suspects, and on Thursday held a demonstration outside the Palace of Justice in Damascus.

Holding placards and photos of their missing relatives, the protesters demanded that the government hold those guilty of crimes to account.

"Many protests are being held in Syria and in exile in response to shameful and arrogant announcements by the Civil Peace Committee of the interim authorities about pardoning and normalizing war criminals like Fadi Saqr, involved in the Tadamon massacre and crimes against humanity," The Syria Campaign, a UK-based advocacy group, said in a post on Instagram.

Prior to Saqr's rehabilitation, Civil Peace Committee member Hassan Soufan acknowledged the "pain and justified anger", but he argued that former regime officers had assisted the new authorities in resolving issues facing the country.

"In the context of national reconciliation, we are sometimes compelled to make decisions that prevent escalation and violence, and help ensure relative stability in the next phase," Soufan said.

Damascus is grappling with keeping Syria's fragile peace intact, amid threats by groups to take justice into their own hands.

Since May, the Syrian Network for Human Rights has recorded the extrajudicial killings of at least 157 civilians in Syria, including 20 children.