Syria: Six-year-old boy kidnapped for three months as family try to collect ransom
A video showing a six-year-old Syrian boy being brutally beaten by kidnappers has sparked strong reactions online, as his family desperately attempts to pay a large ransom fee.
In early November, Fawaz al-Qataifan was abducted in the southwestern city of Daraa while on his way to school by four people riding two motorcycles, according to an interview by the child’s uncle on the Syrian radio station Sham FM.
His uncle, Musab, said that the unknown kidnappers contacted the family on WhatsApp and Telegram to demand a hefty ransom fee, to be paid in dollars.
The kidnappers initially asked for 700 million Syrian pounds ($280,000), before eventually reducing the figure to 400 million following emotional pleas from the child’s mother, Musab said.
He added that the family sold everything that they owned and were able to secure 250 million Syrian pounds.
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On Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published a distressing video of the kidnapped child stripped and being beaten continuously by his captors. The child can be heard screaming, “For God’s sake, don’t hit me.”
Sources told the monitoring group that the kidnappers have sent several videos of the child appealing to his parents over the past three months.
Renowned Syrian actor Abdul Hakim Qutaifan said that his family was working to collect the ransom amount.
“To my honourable Syrian and non-Syrian families, who showed great and honourable human sympathy for the release of the child Fawaz Qataifan, I am very grateful to you,” the actor wrote in a Facebook post accompanied by a video.
He clarified that the family had not asked any organisations to collect money in its name, and would let people know if further help was needed.
The 63-year-old actor and artist is a vocal critic of Syria’s government and a supporter of the revolution, currently living as a refugee in Germany.
'Save Fawaz'
Daraa governorate’s police chief Dirar al-Dandal said that authorities had been in regular contact with the family from the first moment of the kidnapping.
“It is customary in kidnappings in any society that the kidnappers place basic conditions on the family of the kidnapped, which are not to inform any party or authority, otherwise the kidnapped will be harmed,” he told Al-Watan in a statement.
The plight of Fawaz has sparked widespread solidarity among users on social media, with several using the hashtag #انقذوا_فواز_قطيفان (Save Fawaz Qataifan).
Our hearts hurt a lot and we can't do anything. Oh God, return him to his family safe and sound,” tweeted Syrian actress Suzan Najm Aldeen.
Several users linked the timing with five-year-old Rayan, a Moroccan child who died after being stuck down a water well for five days.
Cartoons and graphics documenting both their ordeals were widely shared, as people lamented tragedies faced by children in the region.
This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French edition.
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