Abdul Hamid al-Sarraj

Abdul Hamid Sarraj was a Syrian military officer and politician. When the union between Egypt and Syria — the United Arab Republic (UAR) — was declared in 1958, Sarraj, a staunch Arab nationalist and supporter of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, played a key role in the leadership of the Syrian region of the UAR. Due to the repression by the UAR of the Syrian communists he was nicknamed Sultan Abdul Hamid referring to the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II. He is alleged to have founded the initial absolute security regime in Syria, constructing the framework of a police state and introducing systematized torture during his tenure as head of the Military Intelligence in 1955, which held the authority to interfere in all facets of political and civil life.