Timecode + video

Audio

00:00:00 Colour bars

00:01:13 Yousef  Hosni (Y) from right

Yousef (Y): I wish my sister and brother were alive. But when I bury someone who I don’t know it makes me even more sad.

Who is this person that I buried? They are saying my sister is alive. Then who is this that I buried? Who?

00:12:20 Footage Zeinab’s funeral

00:19:05 Women protesting Zeinab’s death

00:20:22 Women protesting far view

00:25:16 Passport photo slow zoom in

00:34:11 Zeinab on state TV

00:44:20 CY Y from right not speaking

00:48:08 Y form left not speaking. Starts talking at 00:52:16

00:57:05 Y from right

VO: The Hosni family believed they had buried their 18-year-old daughter Zeinab.

She made global headlines when her mutilated body was handed back to the family by Syrian authorities.

Zeinab had been abducted, said the family, and tortured and killed, the first woman to die in Syrian custody during seven months of protests.

Then, a fortnight later, the family was shocked to see Zeinab appear alive on Syria’s state-run TV.

Speaking from a safe house, her brother Yousef cannot understand how Zeinab came to be at the centre of one of the darkest chapters of the Syrian uprising.

01:02:24 CU photo Zeinab white dress

41:17 Y: She was a normal person. She was sensitive; she liked kids and used to play with my kids and with other kids of my brothers and sisters.

She was hoping to get married one day.

01:07:18 Zoom in photo Mohammed Hosni

01:11:24 Protestors stand up and lift banners

VO: But while Zeinab was not political, say the family, her elder brother Mohammed had become a key organiser of protests against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

01:16:21 Y from left

01:22:11 Protestors in street

01:26:09 Protestors with large flag

01:29:09 Protestors marching

01:34:14 Y from left

01:36:08 Protestors run under fire

01:31:07 Y from left

01:41:08 Protestors running under fire

01:49:19 Y from right

01:53:17 Secuirty forces break through a door

19:46 Y: As a family most of us participated in demonstrations, but Mohammed was more active.

27:53 What he saw, him and I and all Syrians, when we demonstrated with 50,000 to 60,000, and people suddenly started running and you are stepping on corpses.

Wouldn’t this motivate you?

20:56 Things developed until there was pressure on us because of Mohammed.

The security forces stormed our home several times and asked around about us.

01:59:08 Security forces arresting man in street

02:04:08 Window view of men on street

VO:  With her brothers wanted and in hiding, Zeinab was left at home caring for her ill mother as the city around her grew ever more dangerous.

02:10:03 Y left

02:13:19 Y right

43:21 Y: She went out to bring medicine for her mum and some supplies around two or three in the afternoon. She never came back.

02:16:14 Mohammed sepia photo

02:21:24 Young men carrying wounded

02:32:14 Mohammed body on table

VO: The family believe Zeinab was abducted by Assad’s security forces to pressure Mohammed to turn himself in.

But on September 10 Mohammed was shot and arrested during a raid on an activist safe house.

Family and friends say Mohammed was only inured in the hand.

But when his mother was called to the Military Hospital, Mohammed’s body told a tale of death under extreme violence.

02:39:17 Y from right

02:43:19 Y from left

02:48:10 Y from right

02:54:22 Y from left

03:00:10 Y from right

03:07:10 Y from left

24:22 Y: We made the procedures for his burial and we filmed him.

We were surprised to find seven bullets in his body: Three in the chest, one in the hand, one in the hip, one in the leg and one where they put pistol in his mouth.

They broke his neck and his jaw and his back was completely smashed.

It was torture by the worst means that anyone can imagine.

03:16:15 Body in hospital

VO: But staff at the military morgue had further devastating news for the family.

03:22:07 Y from left

03:26:04 Y from right

03:28:16 Y from left

45:42 Y: They told us there’s a girl missing in the same fridge and her name is Zeinab al- Hosni and she’s 18.

46:40 Her mother went it to identify her because she was dismembered: Half of the body was in a bag, half in a second bag.

03:35:06 Zeinab body heavily blurred

VO: The body had been horrifically mutilated.

A video, so graphic it had to be completely blurred, shows a ghostly white torso; bone sticking out from a severed arm; the decapitated head, blackened and burned.

03:48:01 Y from left

03:52:08 Y from right

03:56:14 Y from left

46:40 Y: She was able to identify her from the body.

Because the person the mother saw, she said something inside me, the feelings of a mother told her: This is my daughter.

04:03:12 Zeinab’s funeral

04:14:07 Black screen

VO: The family laid their daughter Zeinab to rest in a small funeral.

04:14:20 Z on Syrian state TV

Zeinab (Z): My name is Zeinab Amr al-Hosni

VO: Then, shockingly, two weeks later, Zeinab appeared on state-run Syria TV.

04:35:09 CU Z ID card on state TV

Z: I saw it on TV that I was kidnapped and they had tortured me and given the body to my parents.

04:37:22 Z speaking on state TV

04:50:17 CU Z hands

VO: The pre-recorded interview appeared carefully set up and Zeinab displayed little emotion for someone who, presumably, had heard that her brother Mohammed had been murdered.

04:53: 21 Z speaking on state TV

Z:I ran away because my brother was beating me and torturing me.

I want to say the story on the news on TV is a lie. I am alive not dead and these channels are liars.

VO: While many have doubted the authenticity of the footage, the family confirm the person on TV is indeed Zeinab.

05:13:22 Y from right

05:19:23 Z on state TV

02:18 Y: The picture on the TV is my sister I’m not doubting that. I’m not denying it’s my sister.

05:23:05 Y from right

57:17: Y: But she never escaped from home. We didn’t hurt our sister. And we would never do that because she is our sister.

05:27:05 Photo of Z mother

05:30:04 Photo Z child 1

05:33:10 Photo Z child 2

05:36:09 CU Z passport photo

VO: Zeinab’s mother, Fatat – who did not wish to speak on camera – said she remains convinced that it was her daughter she buried.

But for Yousef the mystery of Zeinab’s sudden re-appearance has left more questions than answers.

05:41:24 Y from right

05:47:20 Y hands

05:49:17 Y right

06:03:05 Fade to black

04:18 Y: We don’t believe their lies. They are saying she is still alive so let them hand her to us alive.

So, ok, who is this person that we buried?

Isn’t she a human being?

Who did that to her?

Who gave her to us to make a media propaganda? Who?  Who has an interest in doing that?

Is the soul of a person something you play with?

ENDS