War criminal among Syrian regime delegation to Geneva

At the start of the Syrian revolution in 2011, Baridi was responsible for the deployment of snipers on rooftops across the city of Duma, killing hundreds of civilians and activists.

Baridi was also behind the assassination of a number of prominent opposition activists in Duma, including Adnan Wehbi, a doctor killed inside his clinic.

Assassination orders came from General Ali Mamlouk, the former head of the National Security Bureau and a trusted adviser to the Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Baridi escaped the city of Duma in 2012, after the Free Syrian Army took control of the city, only to reappear now among the Syrian regime's delegation to the Geneva peace talks.

The Geneva Syria negotiations are part of a peace plan set out in November in Vienna by external powers embroiled in the five-year-old conflict, some on different sides.

The process envisions elections within 18 months but leaves unresolved the future of Assad, whose government has been making gains on the ground since Russia began supporting him with airstrikes in September.