Getty PhotosWarning: This text accommodates graphic particulars of torture
“We gave our blood and soul to the revolution,” crowds chanted, as they carried Mazen Al-Hamada’s coffin by way of the streets of Damascus, draped within the inexperienced, white and black flag adopted by protesters again in 2011, now ubiquitous within the metropolis because the fall of Bashar Al-Assad.
Because the funeral procession moved ahead, increasingly more individuals joined it. “Mazen is a martyr,” many shouted, some weeping.
If the world knew earlier than this concerning the extent of the brutality of Assad’s regime towards its personal individuals, 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 advised the BBC he had fractures, burn marks and contusions throughout his physique, allegations corroborated by Mazen’s household.
“It is unattainable 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. Launched in 2013, he was given asylum within the Netherlands. He started to talk overtly about what he was subjected to in jail.
Within the documentary Syria’s Disappeared by Afshar Movies, Mazen describes how he was raped, his genitals clamped, and the way his ribs had been damaged by a guard leaping on his chest over and over.
Getty PhotosWhereas in asylum, Mazen’s nephew Jad Al-Hamada says he started affected by extreme melancholy and different psychological well being points. Throughout 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 towards them in response. His household says he was not of sound thoughts on the time.
In 2020, he determined to return to Syria.
“The federal government advised him he had a deal and that he can be secure. He was additionally advised that his household can 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 completely satisfied 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. Greater than 100,000 individuals disappeared below his rule, most believed to be useless. Now their households are trying to find their our bodies.
On the Damascus hospital, the our bodies introduced from Seydnaya had been specified by a morgue, and after they ran out of house, 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 a single nook, there was a plastic bag with a human cranium and bones. Households had been trying by way of it to determine their family members.
Getty PhotosNineteen-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 towards a wall and wept.
Throughout us, individuals had been holding up the pictures of the family members they had been trying to find.
“I have not been capable of finding something. How are you going to discover something in the event you’re trying by way of skeletons?” mentioned Mustafa Khair-ul-Inam, an aged man who had come on the lookout for his two sons Omar and Mohammad who disappeared in 2011.
Amhad Masri in the meantime had come on the lookout for his brother Khalil.
“Till now we weren’t allowed to ask the place our family members are, in any other case we’d be arrested. Are you able to think about our emotions? They did not do something and similar to that they’re gone. Possibly they’re in a mass grave someplace. Residing in a jungle was higher than dwelling in Syria,” he mentioned.
Grief and rage – which could not be expressed overtly till only a week in the past – had been pouring out.
“Each mom who’s on the lookout for her son ought to get revenge towards Assad. Putin shouldn’t give him refuge. He ought to ship Assad again so we are able to execute him in a public sq.,” one lady shouted loudly.
I requested Mazen’s sister Lamyaa what justice she wished for her brother.
“The perpetrators of the crimes have all escaped. However I need them introduced again so we are able to get justice in a court docket of regulation.”
Further reporting by Aamir Peerzadaa, Sanjay Ganguly and Leen Al-Saadi
