Assad relative arrested after protests over a killing

The Syrian authorities have arrested a relative of President Bashar al Assad, reported The New York Times, quoting the Syrian state news agency SANA.

The arrest came two days after protesters called for the man’s punishment over suspicions that he killed an army officer in a traffic dispute.

Hundreds of Syrians staged a protest on Saturday in the coastal city of Latakia, a stronghold of Assad and his Alawite sect, to demand the execution of Suleiman al Assad, the son of the president’s cousin Hilal.

SANA, the state news agency, said the authorities had “arrested Suleiman Hilal al Assad and transferred him to the relevant parties.” It gave no further details, according to The New York Times.

Syria’s state news media had not reported the protest or the reported killing, and accounts of what happened vary. But according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and supporters of the president on social media, Suleiman al Assad was angered when Col. Hassan al Shaikh, who was in a car with his family, overtook his vehicle, and so shot him dead.