Syrian soldier said arrested for proposing online to Assad’s teen daughter

Despite warnings from the public, Yazan Soltani continues posting videos on social media, declaring his love for Zein Assad, 16, the dictator’s only daughter

Syrian dictator Basher Assad and his daughter Zein (Twitter)
Syrian dictator Basher Assad and his daughter Zein (Twitter)

A Syrian soldier who posted a series of videos on social media declaring his undying love for dictator Bashar Assad’s 16-year-old daughter and proposing to her was allegedly arrested by the regime Saturday.

The soldier, identified as Yazan Soltani, began posting videos last week addressed to Zein Assad, Assad’s only daughter.

“I love you, I really love you,” Soltani says in one clip. “I’m crazy about you. You are mine and I am yours. Be mine,” he said in a short video that sparked an uproar in Syria.

“You will be mine forever, until the end of time, I won’t give up on you, no matter what,” he says.

https://www.facebook.com/yazan.soltani.5/posts/127547012312199

While some cheered him for his love, most warned him of the dangers of trifling with the Assad family. During Syria’s almost decade-long civil war hundreds of thousands have been killed and tens of thousands of regime opponents have disappeared into into prisons.

“I’m speaking to you as a brother with some advice,” said one Syrian blogger. “There were others before who appeared on social media and made tiny requests, and we don’t see them anymore. In my opinion you are very close to the red line.”

On Saturday, somebody posting on Soltani’s Facebook page as his brother claimed that he had been arrested and beaten.

Other messages posted on the account since then have called for US President Donald Trump to assassinate Bashar Assad and for “the hero Yazad” to be released.

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