As a result of brutal and systematic torture carried out by President Bashar al-Assad's intelligence forces, a young Syrian media activist has died.
UPDATE: Fatma Ali may not have died, according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI). New reports on her case claim that the activist is still alive. (ANHRI, 4 November 2012)
(ANHRI/IFEX) – 30 October 2012 – ANHRI condemns the killing of Syrian media activist Fatma Saad Ali by the general intelligence administration as a result of the brutal and systematic torture she was subjected to after being detained for supporting the Syrian revolution.
Members of the general intelligence department’s sub-branch no.291 in Damascus tortured 22-year-old Saad, a political activist who goes by the name of Farah El-Rays. Saad was so badly beaten that she died after being transferred to a military hospital in Lattakia to receive treatment for liver damage caused by the brutal torture.
On 28 June 2012, Saad was arrested by one of the security patrols in Lattakia. They invaded her house in the Qunenis neighbourhood where her brother, her father, and her were captured. After hours of interrogation, her father and brother were released. The security patrol members confiscated her mobile phone, memory card, digital camera, and laptop among other things. After being searched, she was sent to the political security branch for carrying the flag of the revolution with her as well as for recording some songs chanted by her and her revolutionary friends.
As she was being tortured, Saad was forced to speak and provide information relating to any activists who cooperate with her. She took her last breath on 23 October 2012.
ANHRI stated that “the practices of the Assad regime are deemed to be a crime against humanity, being carried out with the benefit of legal immunity.”
ANHRI stressed that “the international community must intervene to put an end to these serious and systematic violations against human rights in Syria. The number of victims of torture has reached 1,125 since the beginning of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, according to human rights organizations.”
