BBC News investigated the disappearance of Hussam Luka, a former Syrian intelligence chief known as “The Spider”, after Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December 2024. Reporters found a notebook of contacts in Luka’s abandoned Damascus apartment, which may offer clues to his network, whereabouts and alleged crimes. His case matters because survivors and victims’ families fear senior figures accused of abuses could evade accountability.

Luka headed Syria’s Political Security Directorate and was sanctioned by the UK, US and EU over allegations including systematic torture and atrocities. During the siege of Homs, residents said his telephone number was promoted as a route to safe passage, but some people who called allegedly disappeared; witnesses also linked him to the 2015 Eid Massacre in al-Waer. He has denied no allegations in the article, but his present location remains unknown.