‘I want he’d lived to see new Syria’: Crowds bury anti-Assad activist

Warning: This article comprises graphic particulars of torture

“We gave our blood and soul to the revolution,” crowds chanted, as they carried Mazen Al-Hamada’s coffin by the streets of Damascus, draped within the inexperienced, white and black flag adopted by protesters again in 2011, now ubiquitous within the metropolis for the reason that fall of Bashar Al-Assad.

As the funeral procession moved ahead, increasingly more folks joined it. “Mazen is a martyr,” many shouted, some weeping.

If the world knew earlier than this in regards to the extent of the brutality of Assad’s regime in opposition to its personal folks, it was partly due to Mazen, an activist who was an outspoken critic of the regime.

On Sunday, his physique was discovered within the infamous “slaughterhouse”, Seydnaya jail in Damascus. It bore indicators of horrific torture.

A health care provider who examined it informed the BBC he had fractures, burn marks and contusions throughout his physique, allegations corroborated by Mazen’s household.

“It’s not possible to depend the injuries on his physique. His face was smashed and his nostril was damaged,” his sister Lamyaa mentioned.

A protester when the rebellion in Syria started in 2011, Mazen Al-Hamada was arrested and tortured. Released in 2013, he was given asylum within the Netherlands. He started to talk brazenly about what he was subjected to in jail.

In the documentary Syria’s Disappeared by Afshar Films, Mazen describes how he was raped, his genitals clamped, and the way his ribs had been damaged by a guard leaping on his chest again and again.

While in asylum, Mazen’s nephew Jad Al-Hamada says he started affected by extreme despair and different psychological well being points. During this time, he was seen in a video claiming he was being threatened by members of Syria’s ethnic minority Kurds, and known as for violence in opposition to them in response. His household says he was not of sound thoughts on the time.

In 2020, he determined to return to Syria.

“The authorities informed him he had a deal and that he could be protected. He was additionally informed that his household could be arrested and killed if he did not return,” Lamyaa mentioned.

He was arrested as quickly as he arrived within the nation. And his household believes he was killed after rebels took Hama final week, shortly earlier than the regime fell.

“I’m joyful that we’re free, however I want he had lived to see it. He paid the value for our freedom,” mentioned Lamyaa.

Mazen’s story is only a small glimpse into the atrocities dedicated by the Assad regime. More than 100,000 folks disappeared below his rule, most believed to be useless. Now their households are trying to find their our bodies.

At the Damascus hospital, the our bodies introduced from Seydnaya had been specified by a morgue, and after they ran out of area, essentially the most decomposed ones had been stored in a shed-like construction simply exterior. The stench was overwhelming.

One physique was decapitated. The others bore marks of extreme torture.

In one nook, there was a plastic bag with a human cranium and bones. Families had been trying by it to determine their family members.

Nineteen-year-old Ahmad Sultan Eid’s disfigured physique was recognized by his mom and brother. His mom practically collapsed after she noticed it, and nurses took her to the emergency room.

“Oh my boy, my child, you had been solely 19,” she wailed. “There’s nothing left for us anymore.”

Ahmad’s brother leaned his face in opposition to a wall and wept.

All round us, folks had been holding up the images of the family members they had been trying to find.

“I have not been capable of finding something. How can you discover something if you happen to’re trying by skeletons?” mentioned Mustafa Khair-ul-Inam, an aged man who had come in search of his two sons Omar and Mohammad who disappeared in 2011.

Amhad Masri in the meantime had come in search of his brother Khalil.

“Until now we weren’t allowed to ask the place our family members are, in any other case we might be arrested. Can you think about our emotions? They did not do something and similar to that they’re gone. Maybe they’re in a mass grave someplace. Living in a jungle was higher than residing in Syria,” he mentioned.

Grief and rage – which could not be expressed brazenly till only a week in the past – had been pouring out.

“Every mom who’s in search of her son ought to get revenge in opposition to Assad. Putin mustn’t give him refuge. He ought to ship Assad again so we are able to execute him in a public sq.,” one girl shouted loudly.

I requested Mazen’s sister Lamyaa what justice she wished for her brother.

“The perpetrators of the crimes have all escaped. But I would like them introduced again so we are able to get justice in a court docket of legislation.”

Additional reporting by Aamir Peerzadaa, Sanjay Ganguly and Leen Al-Saadi