Kidnapped two Italian activists in 2015 and arrested in Turkey in 2019 | Turkish authorities release commander of “Nour al-Din al-Zenki”

Reliable SOHR sources have confirmed that the Turkish authorities have released Hossam Al-Atrash, a commander and sharia official of “Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement”, after he was arrested in the Turkish city of Al-Rayhaniyyah in February 2019.

It is worth noting that the commander had moved to Turkey after dispute with Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham, formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, in Syria.

Al-Atrash had been involved in the kidnapping of two Italian aid workers, Vanessa Marzullo and Greta Ramelli, in 2015 in the western countryside of Aleppo. The two activists were released later in the same year in return for a huge ransom which exceeded 10 million USD and after Turkish-Qatari mediation.

The former sharia official of “Nour al-Din al-Zenki” recognized later of receiving only five million USD of the ransom, while “Jabhat al-Nusra” took the rest of money.