FSA Official Dubs as Crime Jammo's Punishment without Fair Trial

An official of the rebel Free Syrian Army, Louay al-Meqdad, has rejected the assassination of a pro-government Syrian journalist, saying he should have faced court instead of elimination.

In remarks to An Nahar newspaper published on Thursday, al-Meqdad said that the punishment of Mohammed Darrar Jammo “without a fair trial is a crime.”

Gunmen burst into the first floor apartment of Jammo at dawn Wednesday, killing him in a hail of nearly 30 bullets in the town of Sarafand, which is a Hizbullah stronghold in southern Lebanon.

Jammo, a 44-year-old journalist and political commentator, was one of Syrian President Bashar Assad's and Hizbullah's most vociferous defenders. In frequent appearances on television talk shows, he would staunchly support the Syrian regime's strong-armed response to the uprising and in at least one case shouted down opposition figures, calling them "traitors."

Al-Meqdad accused Assad's regime and its supporters of creating counter-reactions such as Jammo's murder.

“Those killing the Syrian people for the past two years and a half assume responsibility of such an exceptional behavior,” he said.

The FSA official expressed regret that Jammo was “defending murderers and criminals.”

Jammo's hard-line stance had earned him enemies among Syria's opposition, and some in the anti-Assad camp referred to him as "shabih," a term used for pro-government gunmen who have been blamed for some of the worst mass killings of the civil war.