Bassel Khartabil place of detention Adra Prison
Imprisonment
On 15 March 2012, Khartabil was detained amid arrests in the Mazzeh district of Damascus by Military Security Branch 215. That day marked the one-year anniversary of the Syrian uprising, with pro- and anti-government protesters demonstrating in Damascus and elsewhere in the country.Khartabil was interrogated and allegedly tortured for five days by Military Branch 215. One week after his arrest, security forces reportedly took him to his home where they confiscated his computers and his files. He was then transferred to the Interrogation Division Branch 248 and detained there incommunicado for 9 months. On 9 December 2012, Khartabil was brought before a military prosecutor who charged him with "spying for an enemy State" under Articles 272 and 274 of the Syrian Criminal Code. Khartabil was then sent to the Adra Prison in Damascus.On 12 December 2013, a request for written answer on the question of Khartabil's imprisonment was raised before the European Parliament to the Commission (Vice-President/High Representative), stating that "his voluntary work, always non-violent in nature, was greatly valued by Syrians of all backgrounds, and it is strongly suspected that his arrest was part of an effort to restrict access to online communities and discourses and stifle free expression in Syria." On 18 March 2014, the written answer from High Representative/Vice-President Catherine Ashton was published, stating that "The HR/VP deplores the ongoing imprisonment of Bassel Safadi Khartabil, shares the concerns at his situation and follows it very closely."On 21 April 2015, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) adopted an opinion on Khartabil's case, calling his detention "arbitrary" and asking for his immediate release. The WGAD concluded that Kharbatil's detention violated Articles 9, 14 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Syria ratified in 1969.Transfer and execution
On 12 September 2015, Jaysh al-Islam shelled and stormed the prison, taking control of two buildings. Until early October Khartabil was still in Adra Prison in the suburbs of Damascus, Syria. By 3 October, military police took him from his cell in Adra with a 'top secret' sealed order from the Military Field Court. He was transferred to an unknown location.On 6 October, Amnesty International released a new report on Khartabil's status. A day later, Human Rights Watch and 30 other human rights organizations issued a letter demanding that Khartabil's whereabouts be disclosed. On 17 October, Creative Commons Board of Directors approved a resolution calling for Khartabil's release. On 21 October, the New Palmyra project was launched to carry on his 3D modeling work and other creative uses of data about Palmyra. A day later, the MIT Media Lab offered Khartabil a position of research scientist at the Center for Civic Media to work with Ethan Zuckerman on projects to make Syria's history available to the world. On 9 November, an anthology of essays in Khartabil's honor, entitled The Cost of Freedom: A Collective Inquiry, was released under a Creative Commons public domain license. Two days afterward, unconfirmed rumors surfaced that Khartabil had been sentenced to death.In August 2017, Khartabil's wife and friends reported they had seen a copy of official documents confirming he had been executed after his transfer from Adra prison in 2015.
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