A anti-Assad fighter has defended a video of him purportedly cutting out and eating the organs of a dead Syrian soldier.
The video, which had surfaced earlier this week, was criticized by Human Rights Watch, who said,
"The figure in the video cuts the heart and liver out of the body and uses sectarian language to insult Alawites [Assad's minority sect]. At the end of the video [the man] is filmed putting the corpse's heart into his mouth, as if he is taking a bite out of it."
Peter Bouckaert, the emergencies director for the organisation went on to add,
“The desecration and mutilation of a killed person is definitely a war crime… This one is particularly disturbing because of the sectarian nature of the language used by Abu Sakkar.”
The fighter was identified as Khaled al-Hamad, known by the nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, who defended his actions when talking to Time magazine online. He stated that he had acted out of revenge and had further video footage of him cutting the body into pieces.
However the video was slammed by Syria’s National Coalition, the country's main opposition grouping, who issued a statement saying it "strongly condemns" the act. They stated,
"The Coalition stresses that such an act contradicts the morals of the Syrian people, as well as the values and principles of the Free Syrian Army,"
"The Syrian Coalition reiterates its condemnation of such an act and stresses that it is a crime, regardless of the perpetrator."
"The culprit will eventually be tried in court in front of an honest and fair judiciary."
