![\"Luka](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/the_telegraph_258\/bc4a8c87e54f9b94ef36666eddc1c25e.jpeg\"\/)
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Hussam Luka held a powerful position under Assad, who is pictured shaking hands with him in a photo found in Luka’s abandoned home – BBC<\/p>\n
A former senior Syrian intelligence official accused of orchestrating torture and massacres has been found living in Moscow.<\/p>\n
Hussam Luka, who headed Syria’s general security directorate under Bashar al-Assad, the deposed dictator, fled when Damascus fell in December 2024.<\/p>\n
And it has emerged that, like Assad, Luka has taken refuge in Russia.<\/p>\n
Known as “The Spider” for his extensive network of informants, Luka was one of the most feared men in Syria, and had control over the country’s most brutal detention centres<\/a>.<\/p>\n When Assad fled<\/a> as opposition forces closed in on him, Luka also vanished, leaving even his closest allies behind without warning.<\/p>\n Assad with Vladimir Putin in July 2024. He was helped by Russian security services to flee Syria – Valeriy Sharifulin<\/p>\n He was traced in suburban Moscow through a phone book discovered in his abandoned Damascus residence by rebel fighters.<\/p>\n The notebook contained 155 handwritten contacts that included shopkeepers, doctors, military officials and family members, according to the BBC, which said one of the contacts finally yielded a Russian phone number for the fugitive spy chief.<\/p>\n Like Assad, he is shielded from international law enforcement by the Russian authorities.<\/p>\n As a local commander in Homs during the early Syrian civil war, Luka’s phone number was spray-painted on walls as residents were told they could call him for safe passage from the besieged city.<\/p>\n Witnesses say some were granted transit, while others who called the number were never seen again.<\/p>\n Luka’s most shocking alleged crime came during the 2015 Eid al-Adha holiday, when air strikes killed 28 people, including 17 children in the al-Waer neighbourhood of Homs.<\/p>\n According to Syrian activists, Luka personally selected the bombing targets that day.<\/p>\n Luka is said to have personally selected the targets for a 2015 air strike in the Al-Waer district of Homs which is known locally as the ‘Children’s Massacre’<\/p>\n This brutality earned him promotion. By Assad’s fall, Luka controlled Syria’s notorious Sednaya prison<\/a> in Damascus, known as the “human slaughterhouse”, where tens of thousands disappeared.<\/p>\n As head of the general security directorate, he had control over Syria’s detention policies<\/a>, and monitored communications from the prison.<\/p>\n Those arrested included opposition fighters, journalists, doctors and rights activists \u2013 anyone deemed a threat to Assad’s rule.<\/p>\n Assad now lives in Moscow’s Rublyovka, a gated community for Russia’s elite. Other officials, including Yassar Ibrahim, his former economic adviser, also escaped to Russia.<\/p>\n Clashes in Syria<\/p>\n![\"Assad](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/the_telegraph_258\/b8cdbfba1c3c616653d1536f130c0134.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Hussam](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/the_telegraph_258\/53fed1aeaf8a4bd772b7d253645bae14.jpeg\"\/)
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