In an abandoned luxury apartment in the Syrian capital Damascus, armed men dressed in military fatigues sifted through designer clothes and documents.
Scattered across the living room floor, under a sparkling crystal chandelier, were dozens of photos of the same slender man in different settings – sitting at his desk, even playing in the snow. And multiple prints of the same image, showing him smiling warmly as he shook the hand of ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad.
The man was not instantly recognisable, but gold medals and gilded certificates piled nearby were inscribed with the name Hussam Luka.
Known as “The Spider”, Luka was one of Assad’s top henchmen, accused of orchestrating atrocities and systematic torture, and sanctioned by the UK, US and European Union.
As head of Syria’s most powerful civilian intelligence agency, Luka was among the most feared men in the country. But much of his work was conducted from the shadows.
Like others in the regime, Luka seemingly vanished overnight in December 2024 when Assad was toppled, leaving a trail of unanswered questions and demands for justice that many fear will never be realised.
In his apartment, days after Assad’s fall, we watched the rebels looking for clues as to where he might have gone.
In the corner of the living room, on a console table, was an unremarkable-looking notebook.
Inside, in scribbled blue handwriting, we found dozens of names – from shopkeepers and doctors, to military officials and people with the Luka family name.
Could these contacts help us learn more about The Spider and his crimes, or even help us to track him down?
At one time, Luka’s own phone number was hard to avoid – in the early days of the Syrian civil war, it had been spray-painted on walls around the central city of Homs.
The conflict was sparked by Assad’s brutal crushing of a pro-democracy uprising in 2011 – a war in which hundreds of thousands of people would go on to be killed.