French prosecutor investigates Christian NGO SOS Chretién d’Orient

HMOTH, HEMTO, Syria – SOS Christian d’Orient (SOSCO), a French non-governmental organization with links to the far-right, billed itself as a protector of embattled Christians in Syria and partnered with the French Defense Ministry.

Recently, the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office opened a preliminary investigation about SOSCO’s complicity in war crimes.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Paris confirmed that SOSCO had partnerships with Syrian militias loyal to Bashar al-Assad, and are accused of committing war crimes in Syria.

The SOSCO is active in the villages of Hmoth (Homs) and Hemto (Hama), through its agents affiliated with militia members of the National Defense Forces (NDF), which are responsible for war crimes, according to Human Rights Watch.

NDFs consist of Syrian youth initially recruited and armed by the Assad regime under the guise of keeping law and order and defending local neighborhoods during Syria’s brutal war. NDFs throughout Syria were mobilized to join the Assad regime’s army in carrying out military offensives inside rebel-controlled areas, according to New Lines magazine.

A report stated that the militiamen are direct beneficiaries of the donations, which are estimated at hundreds of thousands of euros.

The relation between SOSCO and the Assad regime has been documented, even in the French media, since SOSCO began its work in Syria in 2013.

SOSCO was set up in France in October 2013, shortly before its first mission, dubbed “Christmas in Syria.” Its stated purpose was to help Christians in the Middle East in the post-Arab Spring violence.

However, SOSCO veered away from providing Christian communities with the humanitarian aid and moral support it originally advocated to peddling a right-wing political agenda and spreading misinformation, according to the organization’s original founder, Olivier Demeocq, who is now estranged from SOSCO, according to New Lines magazine.