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Ali Mamlouk (; born 19 February 1946) is a Syrian intelligence officer and special security and military advisor to President
Bashar al-Assad Bashar al-Assad (born 11September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator Sources characterising Assad as a dictator: who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until fall of the Assad regime, his government ...
. He is reportedly one of Assad's most trusted associates. From 2012 to 2019, Mamlouk served as the head of the National Security Bureau of the Ba'ath Party. On 9 July 2019, Mamlouk was appointed as the Syrian Deputy
Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
for Security Affairs.


Early life

Ali Mamlouk was born in Al-Bahsa,
Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
into a
Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...
family on 19 February 1946. There is another report giving his birth year as 1945. His family history goes back to Ahmed Pasha Al-Mamlouk a hundred years ago, who is buried in the Al-Mamlouk family graves in Al-Dahdah cemetery in Damascus. His family also has branches in Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt.


Career

Mamlouk is said to be one of the founding officers of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence in the 1970s. He was deputy director there, when in June 2005 President
Bashar al-Assad Bashar al-Assad (born 11September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator Sources characterising Assad as a dictator: who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until fall of the Assad regime, his government ...
appointed him head of the General Security Directorate. In 2010, Gen. Mamlouk discussed efforts to increase co-operation between
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
and Damascus on terrorism issues at a surprise meeting with US diplomats. He said the GID had been more successful at fighting terrorism in the region because "we are practical and not theoretical". Mamlouk was said to be on good terms with all of Syria's intelligence agencies; the heads of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate and the Political Security Directorate were once his assistants. In July 2012 following the Damascus security HQ bombing, it was reported that Mamlouk would become the head of the National Security Bureau with the rank of minister overseeing the entire security apparatus, and that former
military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis List of intelligence gathering disciplines, approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist Commanding officer, commanders in decision making pr ...
chief Abdel-Fatah Qudsiyeh would become his assistant.


Syrian Civil War

Mamlouk is one of many officials sanctioned by the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
for their alleged actions against protesters participating in the Syrian revolution. His agency had "repressed internal dissent, monitored individual citizens, and had been involved in the Syrian government's Siege of Daraa, where protesters were killed by Syrian security services". In addition, he was added to the European Union's sanction list on 9 May 2011 on the grounds that he "involved in violence against demonstrators" during the war. Swiss government also put him into sanction list in September 2011. On 23 April 2012, the US government imposed sanctions on him, saying he had been responsible for human rights abuses, including the use of violence against civilians. In August 2012, Ali Mamlouk was accused of trying to blow up the situation in Lebanon in agreement with Lebanese Minister Michel Samaha, who admitted to transporting explosives in his car to carry out assassinations of a list of people in agreement with Syria. Samaha with the help of the former Lebanese Security Chief  Jamil Al Sayyed "tried to carry out assassination" of
Samir Geagea Samir Farid Geagea (,  , also spelled Samir Ja'ja' ; born 25 October 1952) is a Lebanese politician and former militia commander who has been the leader of the Lebanese Forces Lebanese Forces, political party and Lebanese Forces (militia ...
,
Saad Hariri Saad El-Din Rafik Al-Hariri ( ; born 18 April 1970) is a Lebanese people, Lebanese businessman and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon, prime minister of Lebanon from 2009 to 2011 and 2016 to 2020. The son of Rafic Hariri, he ...
and Wissam al-Hassan. In May 2015, concern mounted regarding Mamlouk's whereabouts and health after not having been seen for some time, leading to comparisons with Rustum Ghazaleh who recently met a violent and unclear death. In July 2015, Mamlouk visited
Jeddah Jeddah ( ), alternatively transliterated as Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; , ), is a List of governorates of Saudi Arabia, governorate and the largest city in Mecca Province, Saudi Arabia, and the country's second largest city after Riyadh, located ...
in Saudi Arabia and
Muscat Muscat (, ) is the capital and most populous city in Oman. It is the seat of the Governorate of Muscat. According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the population of the Muscat Governorate in 2022 was 1.72 million. ...
in Oman and met with Saudi and GCC officials to discuss proposals for ending the Syrian Civil War. In August 2015, Mamlouk visited
Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
and met President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, senior security officials. Mamlouk and his
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
ian counterparts reportedly discussed the fight against Islamic State, and against other Islamist factions, including the
Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...
. In 2018, Maj. Gen. Mamlouk made a rare visit to Cairo to meet with his Egyptian counterpart, Abbas Kamel, director of the GIS with discussing “political, security and counterterrorism issues”. Between 2021 and 2023, he held meetings with Saudi intelligence chief Khalid bin Ali Al Humaidan, the first such since the outbreak of the civil war. On 18 January 2024, President Bashar al-Assad appointed Mamlouk as a national security advisor, and deputy vice president of the Syrian Arab Republic for security and military affairs. Following the fall of the regime, reports indicated that he fled Syria to Lebanon with
Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...
's assistance and eventually settled in Dahieh, Beirut.


Criminal investigations


Lebanon

On 11 August 2012, Lebanon indicted Ali Mamlouk in absentia and former Lebanese Information Minister Michel Samaha for their alleged plots to assassinate Lebanese political and religious figures. Lebanese judicial officials issued a warrant for Mamlouk's arrest on 4 February 2013.


France

In November 2018, French prosecutors issued international arrest warrants for three senior Syrian intelligence and government officials: Ali Mamlouk, Abdel Salam Mahmoud and Jamil Hassan. The warrants brought charges including collusion in torture,
forced disappearance An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a State (polity), state followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the i ...
s, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Four days of hearings at the Paris
Cour d'assises In France, a ''cour d'assises'', or Court of Assizes or Assize Court, is a Criminal law, criminal trial court with original jurisdiction, original and Appellate jurisdiction, appellate limited jurisdiction to hear cases involving defendants accu ...
started on 21 May 2024, and on May 25 all three men were convicted ''in absentia'' of involvement in the torture and killing of two French citizens in Syria.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mamlouk, Ali 1946 births Fugitives wanted by France Living people People convicted in absentia People of the Syrian civil war Syrian generals Syrian mass murderers Syrian Sunni Muslims Syrian individuals subject to the European Union sanctions Syrian individuals subject to U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions Politicide perpetrators