Bassel Khartabil
Jimmy Wales: 'The world needs to ask: #whereisbassel?'
The people who are in real danger never leave their countries. They are in danger for a reason and for that they don’t leave.
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.
Enforced disappearances, which puts HRDs at acute risk of torture and ill-treatment, are widespread and committed with impunity by the security forces with the purported aim of obtaining information or coercing confessions. HRDs have been abducted and eventually found to be in detention.
