O n December 8, 2024, as the regime of Bashar al-Assad collapsed, Mukhtar was at his home in Idlib Governorate, in northwestern Syria. (For safety reasons, he asked to use a pseudonym.) A researcher with the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC), he watched videos of rebel forces rolling into the Syrian capital, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, whose precursor had been affiliated with Al Qaeda. He was overwhelmed by the ebullient scenes of prisoners emerging, bewildered, from their cells at the Mezzeh military airbase and the notorious Sednaya prison. Less thrilling were...