The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has called on the Assad regime to disclose information regarding the circumstances of the death of media activist and open-web promoter Bassel Khartabil, also known as Bassel Safadi. Khartabil’s family last week shared information about his execution in the prisons of the Assad regime back in 2015.
In a statement released on Thursday, UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova condemned the killing of Khartabil who “carried out important work to support freedom of expression, and to help the people of Syria benefit from, and contribute to, the internet.”
“His death is a loss to those committed to the sharing of knowledge across open channels,” Bokova added.
Khartabil’s execution by the Assad regime sparked widespread outrage, with several rights groups and countries condemning the crime. On August 4, the United States held the Assad regime responsible for the killing of Khartabil.
Amnesty International on August 1 confirmed that Khartabil was executed back in 2015. His wife, rights activist Nora Ghazi Safadi on Tuesday wrote on her Facebook page that her husband died just days after he was taken from Adra Prison near Damascus to an undisclosed location in Damascus on October 3, 2015.
Born in 1981, Safadi was one of Syria’s leading pro-free speech and democracy activists. He was awarded the title of the Ambassador of Creative Commons for his contribution to the Mozilla projects.
Assad’s security forces detained Khartabil in March 2012, and a relative said he was tortured in an unofficial detention facility run by the Assad regime’s Military Intelligence Department. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)
