SBC’s Investigations Team formally filed a criminal complaint with the French prosecutors against Omar Aroub on 24 July 2024. Aroub was scheduled to attend the 2024 Paris Olympics which will take place later this month and next month. Following public pressure, the International Olympic Committee has confirmed that Aroub does not have accreditation to attend the Olympic games.
Aroub was a former member of the Executive Bureau of the National Union of Syrian Students (NUSS). Through this role, he personally oversaw the systematic and violent clampdown against anti-regime activity at the University of Aleppo and beyond. He directed orders to NUSS members as well as to state security services to violently suppress student protests. Aroub furthermore directed and coordinated beatings and torture of students at the NUSS Aleppo branch, as well as the arrest of students by security forces (after which the students were subjected to torture, inhumane treatment, and/or forced disappearance).
In 2012, Aroub also became the Deputy Commander of the Kataeb al-Baath militia, one of the most prominent pro-regime militias in Aleppo which participated in a number of offensives against civilian areas, including the attack against Old Aleppo in early 2014.
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