Detained in Aleppo

Dr Salem Abu al-Nasr was released from prison on January 25 almost three weeks after he was kidnapped by masked gunmen at his dental clinic in Sha’ar, a neighborhood in opposition-controlled Aleppo.

Following his arrest on January 8, 2015 the Syrian opposition’s intelligence agency released a statement confirming that he had been detained on the grounds that he had been seen with members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah in Beirut and had behaved inappropriately with women.

The intelligence agency is a new security arm operating in liberated Aleppo. It is unclear who its officers are and who they report to but they are widely believed to belong to the Islamist group, Ahrar ash-Sham.

Activists had demonstrated for Abu al-Nasr’s release.

Abu al-Nasr is a former opposition figure who has previously been arrested by the Syrian authorities in his hometown of Tartous on Syria’s Mediterranean coast for participating in the first anti-government protests there.

After his release he had decided to move to liberated Aleppo in order to avoid being arrest again.

Waed al-Khatib produced the following profile of Abu al-Nasr before he was arrested.