Nizar Nayyouf

Nizar Nayyouf is a prominent Syrian journalist and human rights activist. He is also known as a political dissident. A dissident is someone who publicly disagrees with the government. Nayyouf was born in Lattakia, Syria, on May 29, 1962. He studied political economy and economic development at the University of Damascus. After his studies, he began working as a freelance journalist. He later became the editor-in-chief of a publication called Sawt al-Democratiyya, which means Democracy's Voice.

Nayyouf was a founding member of the Committee for the Defence of Democratic Freedom (CDF). This was a political organization in Syria that was eventually banned. As a leader in the CDF, he served as the secretary-general. He insisted that the group remain independent from any specific political party. In December 1991, Nayyouf wrote a four-page tract. In this document, he criticized the government for taking away democratic rights. He also spoke about the actions of security services and the use of martial law.

In late 1991, the Syrian authorities arrested Nayyouf's wife and young daughter. They did this to pressure him to surrender. Nayyouf surrendered to the authorities on January 10, 1992. He was tried by the Syrian Supreme State Security Court (SSSC). This court handles political and national security cases. The SSSC is not bound by the constitutional rights that usually protect the accused. During the trial, which lasted from February 29 to March 27, 1992, many CDF members were present. Nayyouf was accused of disseminating false information and questioning election results. He received a sentence of ten years of hard labour.

Nayyouf's imprisonment involved several different locations. He first served ten months at Sednaya Prison outside Damascus. He then moved to Palmyra prison near Tadmur. In 1993, he conducted a thirteen-day hunger strike at Palmyra to protest prisoner torture. He eventually moved to Mezzeh prison, a military prison near Damascus. Most of his sentence was spent in solitary confinement at Mezzeh. During his time in prison, he was subjected to severe physical torture. This included electrocution, beatings, and being hung upside down. He was also subjected to a device called the "German chair." This was a rack used to stretch the spines of prisoners.

The physical toll of his imprisonment was extreme. Due to daily torture during his first two months, Nayyouf became partially paralyzed from the legs down. He could only move by crawling. He was also diagnosed with cancer, possibly Hodgkin's lymphoma. The government denied him cancer treatment unless he promised to stop his political activism. Nayyouf refused this demand. He also survived three attempted assassinations in prison. These included incidents involving arsenic poisoning and other chemicals. Some prison guards were sympathetic to him, which helped him survive these attempts.

International organizations took notice of Nayyouf's situation. Groups like UNESCO and the World Association of Newspapers worked for his release. He received several prestigious awards while still in prison. In 2000, the International Press Institute named him a World Press Freedom Hero. In 2001, he won the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. The award jury expressed deep concern for his survival. On May 6, 2001, President Bashar al-Assad granted Nayyouf's release on humanitarian grounds. This release coincided with the visit of Pope John Paul II to Syria.

After his release, Nayyouf moved to France and later the United Kingdom. He applied for political asylum and received it in France in 2002. He has continued to advocate for democratic reforms in Syria. He has also spoken about the Tadmor Prison massacre of 1980. Even in Europe, he faced challenges. In 2002, he was briefly abducted in Belgium and left in a forest. He accused the Syrian government of being behind this act. Nayyouf remains an active voice in the struggle for human rights and democracy in his home country.