‘I want he had lived to see the brand new Syria’: Crowd buries anti-Assad activist

Warning: This article accommodates graphic particulars of torture

“We gave our blood and soul to the revolution,” the 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 in 2011, now omnipresent within the metropolis . because the fall of Bashar Al-Assad.

As the funeral procession progressed, an increasing number of individuals joined it. “Mazen is a martyr,” many shouted, some cried.

If the world knew beforehand the extent of the Assad regime’s brutality 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 notorious “slaughterhouse”, Seydnaya jail in Damascus. It bore indicators of horrible torture.

A physician who examined him informed the BBC he had fractures, burns and bruises throughout his physique, allegations confirmed by Mazen’s household.

“It is unimaginable to rely the accidents on his physique. His face was smashed and his nostril was damaged,” mentioned his sister Lamyaa.

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

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

While within the asylum, Mazen’s nephew, Jad Al-Hamada, says he started to endure from extreme despair and different psychological well being issues. During this time, he was seen in a video through which he claimed to have been threatened by members of Syria’s ethnic minority, the Kurds, and in response known as for violence towards them. His household says he was not in his proper thoughts on the time.

In 2020 he determined to return to Syria.

“The authorities informed him that he had a deal and that he could be protected. He was additionally informed that his household could be arrested and killed if he didn’t 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 autumn of the regime.

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

Mazen’s story is only a small glimpse of the atrocities dedicated by the Assad regime. More than 100,000 individuals disappeared below his rule, most of them presumed useless. Now their households are searching for their our bodies.

At the Damascus hospital, our bodies introduced from Seydnaya had been positioned in a morgue, and after they ran out of house, probably the most decomposed ones had been saved in a shed-like construction simply exterior. The stench was overwhelming.

A physique was beheaded. The others bore indicators of extreme torture.

In one nook there was a plastic bag with a human cranium and bones. Families had been inspecting it to establish their family members.

The disfigured physique of 19-year-old Ahmad Sultan Eid was recognized by his mom and brother. His mom nearly fainted after seeing him and the nurses took her to the emergency room.

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

Ahmad’s brother put his face towards the wall and cried.

All round us, individuals had been displaying off images of the family members they had been searching for.

“I could not discover something. How can you discover something for those who look among the many skeletons?” mentioned Mustafa Khair-ul-Inam, an aged man who got here searching for his two sons Omar and Mohammad who disappeared in 2011.

Amhad Masri within the meantime had come to search for his brother Khalil.

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

Grief and anger – which till per week in the past couldn’t be expressed brazenly – had been pouring out.

“Every mom searching for her son ought to take revenge on 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 need them introduced again so we are able to get justice in a courtroom of legislation.”

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