Mazen al-Hamada (Arabic: مازن الحمادة, romanized: Māzin al-Ḥamāda; (1977-07-03)July 3, 1977 – c. (2024-12-00)December 2024) was a Syrian activist from Deir ez-Zor.[3] Hamada was imprisoned and tortured for more than a year and a half for participating in anti-government protests in the context of the Arab Spring in 2011. After being exiled from Syria, he became an asylum seeker in the Netherlands where he publicly testified to the abuse he suffered. In 2020, Hamada became the victim of enforced disappearance, when he was arrested by Syrian intelligence at the airport upon his return to Syria. His body was found in Sednaya Prison on December 9, 2024 during the fall of the Assad regime.[4]
His funeral, held on December 12, was attended by hundreds of Syrians; he has since been hailed as a martyr and a symbol of the Syrian opposition.[5]
Biography
Hamada was a graduate of the Institute of the Petroleum Industry,[citation needed] and worked as a technician for the French multinational oil and gas company Schlumberger.[6] He later became an employee for the Syrian Emergency Task Force, located in Washington, DC and backed by the U.S. State Department.
He took part in demonstrations calling for more freedom and democracy, and decided to film these events with his phone.[6] Hamada was arrested for the first time on April 24, 2011, by regime intelligence services.[7] He was released a week later. After a second arrest on December 29, 2011, and after two weeks of detention in the same branch, he decided to leave for Damascus.[8][better source needed]
Arrests, imprisonment, and torture
In March 2012, Hamada attempted to smuggle 55 packages of baby formula to a suburb of Damascus. Soon after, he and his two nephews were arrested. They were brought to the branch of the air force intelligence service of Mezzeh Military Airport. Hamada's two nephews would later die in detention.[3][7] Two weeks after the arrest, he was detained "in a small hangar, a little more than forty feet long and twenty feet wide"[3] with 170 other prisoners.[9]
Under torture, Hamada was forced to confess to charges of being a terrorist, possessing weapons, and the murder of regime soldiers. When he refused to confess, agents were called to come and torture him. He was beaten and suspended by the wrists. To alleviate his suffering, he agreed to sign a forced confession, admitting that he possessed a weapon to protect the demonstrators, but he refused to admit having committed any crimes. He was then transferred to another interrogation room, where he was undressed and sexually abused. After this torture he signed all of the documents.[3][10]
At the beginning of 2013, he was ill and taken to military hospital 601, nicknamed by other detainees as a "slaughterhouse". In transit to the hospital, Hamada was physically assaulted. He was told to forget his name, and was assigned the number "1858". There he saw detainees tortured to death, corpses piling up in the toilets and hospital staff beating patients to death. Hamada begged the doctor to be returned to detention.[3][9]
Back at Mezzeh airport, he was treated for a month by a detained doctor, before being transferred to the Qaboun military police on June 1, 2013, and then to Adra Prison on June 5, 2013, where he remained for about two months.[citation needed] Mazen eventually was taken to the anti-terrorism court,[3] which ordered his release in September 2013.[11]
During his imprisonment, which lasted one year and seven months, Hamada was violently tortured. He suffered physical, mental, and sexual abuse, and sustained permanent physical and psychological injuries from his detention in regime prisons, including genital injuries that made having children impossible.[10][12]
Exile
After his release, Hamada was still wanted by the intelligence services. He therefore decided to leave Syria and applied for asylum in the Netherlands.[12]
Return to Syria and forced disappearance
Hamada's body being taken in a procession around Damascus before his funeral
Hamada wanted to help the Syrians still detained, and he felt powerless to improve their situation. He seems to have been approached by people from the Syrian embassy, close to the Assad regime, and to have been lured back to Syria with promises of releasing detainees.[10] Hamada wrote that he was ready to sacrifice himself to save others.[citation needed]
Hamada's body was found on December 9, 2024, after opposition forces from the Free Syrian Army took control of Sednaya Prison during the fall of Damascus.[15] Hamada is believed to have been executed a few days before the discovery of his body, which had extensive signs of torture and beatings.[16][17][18]
His funeral was held on December 12 in Damascus. Hundreds attended his funeral, during which his coffin was draped with the opposition flag and he was hailed as a martyr by attendants.[19]
