Bassel Khartabil (aka Bassel Safadi) Executed in 2015 - Confirmed
On 1 August 2017, Bassel's wife Nour received confirmation that he had been executed by the Syrian regime just days after he was taken from Adra prison in October 2015.
From March 15, 2012, the one-year anniversary of the Syrian uprising, he was detained by the Syrian government at Adra Prisonin Damascus.
Bassel Kharbatil, also known as Bassel Safadi, is a Palestinian Syrian open-sourcesoftware developer. From March 15, 2012, the one-year anniversary of the Syrian uprising, he was detained by the Syrian government at Adra Prisonin Damascus. He has served as project lead and public affiliate for Creative Commons Syria and is credited with opening up the Internet in Syria and vastly extending online access and knowledge to the Syrian people.
On 1 August, Bassel Khartabil Safadi's wife, Noura Ghazi Safadi, announced confirmation that her husband had been executed in October 2015, shortly after he had been removed from the notorious Adra prison.
She posted on Facebook:
"I am choking on the words as I announce today on my behalf and on behalf of Bassel’s family and my own, the confirmation of the death sentence and execution of my husband Bassel Khartabil Safadi. He was executed just days after he was taken from Adra prison in October 2015… This is an end befitting of a hero like him.
Thank you for killing my lover...
Thanks to you I was the bride of the revolution and thanks to you I am now a widow.
Oh Syria’s loss
Oh Palestine’s loss
Oh my loss…"
The Syria Campaign page on Facebook reported:
Days before his wedding in 2012, Bassel was detained and forcibly disappeared by the Syrian regime. A huge online #FreeBassel campaign was mounted for his release and after surviving solitary confinement and torture he resurfaced in Adra, a Syrian state prison. There, Noura and Basel wed by exchanging vows through a prison net. Noura’s father placed the ring on her finger and Noura wore a blue dress, her favourite colour. Noura smuggled love poems to Bassel in his prison, which he translated from Arabic to English and published in a book.
Bassel vanished from Adra prison in October 2015, around the time that his family and friends thought he would be released. No one has heard from him since. Rumours of his execution after disappearing from Adra have now been confirmed and Noura has just made the news public.
