It's March 2013 and Raqqa is celebrating. Opposition forces have taken over the city and the Syrian regime is no longer in control. That means no more intelligence forces, no more security branches, and no more Head of State Security Khaled al-Halabi. As the citizens of Raqqa look towards a new future, where has Halabi escaped to?

The Syria Trials is a 75 Podcast production. This episode is hosted by Fritz Streiff, and produced by Sasha Edye-Lindner, with research and editorial support from Mais Katt. The voiceovers were provided by Cyril Nehmé, Muhammad Bakri, Amr Hussien and Alaa Ehsan. It was mixed by Tobias Withers.

Support for our podcast comes from German Federal Foreign Office funds that are provided by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen IFA’s Zivik Funding Programme.

If you’d like to find out more about our podcast, head to our website https://75podcasts.org/ Here you'll find an archive of all our episodes with their transcripts, as well as our other productions.