Mysterious death

The reasons behind the murder of ex-Syrian spy chief Rustom Ghazaleh

Former Syrian political security chief Rustom Ghazaleh, one of the country’s most notorious figures for the past two decades, has died.

As with the deaths of other prominent figures in Bashar al-Assad’s regime, natural causes are seldom the case. In 2005, Ghazi Kanaan, who preceded Ghazaleh, was also murdered, but the Syrian government claimed that he committed suicide.