Alawite Civilian Pleads for His Life: 'Can't I Buy My Soul?'

The video circulated for days across social media channels monitoring the Syrian coastal massacres. Filmed on March 10, 2025, near the village of Hreisoun outside Baniyas in Tartous governorate, it showed a middle-aged man — unarmed, visibly terrified — facing a group of armed fighters. His voice breaking, he addressed his captors with a plea that echoed across the diaspora:

"Can't I buy my soul? Can't I ransom my own life?"

His question was not rhetorical. He was asking, in the most literal terms possible, whether he could pay money to be allowed to live. The men holding him gave no audible answer.

Hreisoun is a small Alawite village on the slopes above Baniyas. On March 10, 2025, it was one of several villages entered by armed factions following the offensive that had swept through coastal Syria in the days before. Witnesses from nearby communities describe men being separated from women and children, lined up, and led away. Some were never seen again.

The man in the video was identified by community members who recognised him. His name was known. His face was known. He had a family.

The footage is difficult to watch — not for what is shown, but for what it makes audible: a human being reduced to bargaining for the most fundamental thing a person can possess. His words, spoken in a Syrian coastal dialect, carry a weight that no translation can fully hold.

What happened to him after the recording ended is not documented here. What is documented is that he was alive in that moment, that he spoke, and that someone filmed it.

His question hangs in the air of everything that followed.

Can't I buy my soul?