The Military Operations Department announced, on Thursday, the arrest of a senior official from the former Syrian regime accused of serious violations against Syrians.

Syria TV reported that the new authorities arrested Major General Muhammad Kanjo Hassan, the official in charge of the field courts in the former Saydnaya prison in Khirbet al-Muazza in the countryside of Tartous, who activists called the “Saydnaya Butcher.”

The Syrian National Coalition confirmed Kanjo’s arrest in a tweet on its “X” account and called for his trial.

The coalition said that the arrest of Kanjo, “one of the Assad regime’s criminals responsible for thousands of executions in Saydnaya prison,” represents an important step towards achieving justice and holding the perpetrators of crimes against the Syrian people accountable.

 Kanjo served as Director of the Military Justice Department in Syria. He joined the ranks of the regime forces and progressed in his career until he became a prominent military judge.

 With the outbreak of the 2011 revolution, Muhammad Kanjo was serving as the military prosecutor in the Military Field Court in Damascus. He tried civilian and military detainees, and his name was associated with the issuance of thousands of death sentences and life and long prison sentences on detainees.

Kanjo is accused of violations against Syrians and issuing sentences that could reach the death penalty against innocent people based on confessions signed under torture by the security services.

The Center for Documentation of Violations in Syria says in a report that Kanjo is accused of inhumane dealings with detainees and exploiting their families financially, which enabled him to amass a large fortune.  

Earlier on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, “Nine people were killed in clashes in Tartous Governorate after security forces attempted to arrest a military officer who held positions during the era of ousted President Bashar al-Assad linked to Sednaya prison.”

The Syrian Minister of Interior, Muhammad Abdel Rahman, announced on Wednesday that 14 members of his ministry were killed and 10 others were injured in an ambush carried out by “remnants of the former regime” in the countryside of Tartous Governorate.

The doors of Syrian prisons were opened after opposition fighters led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham overthrew the Assad regime this month, more than 13 years after it suppressed anti-government protests, sparking a war that claimed the lives of more than 500,000 people.