Syrian president's cousin arrested over 'road rage murder'

Syrian authorities have arrested President Bashar al-Assad’s second cousin over the alleged killing of a military officer which sparked protests in Latakia, according to SANA, the Syrian state news agency.

The agency said on Monday that Suleiman Hilal al-Assad had been arrested and referred to the appropriate authorities. It did not give any additional details.

The protests began on Saturday, with hundreds of people calling for revenge against Suleiman al-Assad, who is accused of killing Colonel Hassan Sheikh after the latter overtook his car on a highway.

“The people want the execution of Suleiman” the crowd, led by Sheikh’s brother Nasser chanted.

The protesters in Latakia, a government stronghold dominated by Assad’s Alawite minority sect, also chanted slogans in support of the president.

Suleiman, the son of the president’s cousin Hilal, reportedly shot Sheikh seven times in the chest in front of his wife and children with an AK-47 he was carrying.

Nasser, who was with the colonel at the time of his death, told Syrian daily al-Watan he witnessed the victim being “killed in cold blood because he did not give way in a traffic jam".

He hoped “the blood of my brother will save us from these criminal actions that kill people on the streets,” in an apparent reference to the pro-government militias in war-torn Syria that are heavily armed and often act with impunity.

Other Syrian media outlets did not report on the two-day protests, or the murder that resulted from the road rage. Details of the incident vary, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Assad’s supporters on social media said that Suleiman was angered after Colonel Sheikh’s car overtook his.

Citing local sources, the Observatory said that Suleiman was arrested on the road between Latakia and Qardaha, the Assads’ ancestral village.

Earlier on Monday, Al-Watan quoted Sheikh's relatives as saying the president had pledged the crime would not go unpunished.

Sheikh's wife Maysa Ghanem told the paper, which is close to the government, that she had "received a promise from President Assad to punish the perpetrator, whoever he is".

The pledge was passed to her by "official delegations that came to Latakia to express their sympathies," she said.

"I have confidence in the word of the president, who is personally taking charge. We will get our rights."

Latakia governor Ibrahim Khodr al-Salem, who paid condolences to the family on behalf of the presidency, assured them that "your rights will not be set aside so long as President Assad is here," Al-Watan reported.