Mazen al-Hamada's peers 'shocked' as Syrian activist's body found in Sednaya prison

The reports of long-time Syrian activist Mazen al-Hamada’s death in Syria’s infamous Sednaya prison sent shockwaves across the globe.

“I was on a live stream yesterday, and I started screaming,” said Maysoun Berkdar, a Berlin-based Syrian journalist who was celebrating the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad when she received the news.

Hamada, one of Syria’s most prominent anti-government activists, had spent years abroad telling people of the abuses he suffered in Sednaya, where he was held for over a year and a half for trying to smuggle in baby formula in 2012.

For years, he spoke of the physical, mental and sexual abuse he was subjected to in prison.

Having gotten refuge in the Netherlands, Hamada shocked his peers when he decided to return to Damascus in early 2020.

“Mentally, he was unwell,” said Berkdar.

Berkdar was the last person to speak with him before his flight from Beirut to Damascus. She desperately pleaded with him to change his mind.

“I will never forget a single word I told him, how hard I tried and how angry I got,” she told Middle East Eye.

“‘Mazen, don’t go, I beg you, this regime cannot be trusted, they are trapping you, what are you doing going there?’” she recalled telling him.

Despite her attempts, warning him that the government could severely punish him should he step foot into Syria, he still boarded the flight that led to his eventual disappearance.

‘We tried very hard to help him’

Sakir Khader, a Palestinian visual artist who lived near Hamada in the Netherlands, said on X that the Dutch government was “jointly responsible” for his death.

“As the violence [in Syria] escalated, so did the pressure from various authorities in the Netherlands,” he said. “Mazen was told he had to give something in return for everything he had been given.”

Hamada's severe post-traumatic stress disorder left him in constant fear, according to Khader, making it difficult for him to work.

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“Every time Mazen traveled abroad to testify against Assad and share his story of injustice, Dutch authorities increased the pressure on him. If he could travel, which they considered more like vacations, then he should be able to work.”

In a video published before he left for Syria, Hamada accused the Dutch government of increasing its pressure on him by cutting off his benefits, leaving him unable to pay rent and struggling mentally and financially. 

Badawi al-Mugharbel, a close friend and neighbour of Hamada’s, disagreed with these claims, saying the Dutch government treated him well and that his loss of money was due to personal disputes.

Regardless, Hamada had reached a breaking point where he allegedly reached out to members of Syria’s government to plan his return.

“The last few times I saw Mazen, his health situation had severely deteriorated,” Mugharbel said. “I asked him if he needed any money, because I helped him a lot with his expenses.”

All of Mugharbel’s attempts to stop Hamada from leaving fell short.

“We tried very hard to help him get out of the crisis he was in,” he said.

“At the end, he accused me of not looking out for his wellbeing, saying, ‘No, you are jealous of me because I am going to see Bashar al-Assad.’”

Berkdar said Hamada was “convinced that he [would] play a good role in freeing prisoners and building [our] country” by returning to Damascus.

Evaporated joy

Following Hamada’s disappearance, his friends and family worked tirelessly to receive any information on his whereabouts.

Mugharbel was even in contact with a source in Damascus to try to find any kind of information.

Despite this, nothing prepared them for what seemed to be an image of his tortured body pulled out of Sednaya on Monday, a day after Assad’s government had fallen.

'It is like someone losing a parent on their wedding day'

- Badawi al-Mugharbel, a close friend of Mazen al-Hamada

“We were shocked when they got him out of Sednaya yesterday,” Mugharbel said. “I could not sleep; I was extremely depressed.

“My joy from the fall of the regime evaporated in Sednaya, even more so with [the death of] Mazen.”

Thousands of prisoners were reportedly freed from many government prisons after the rebels’ takeover of Syria, and evidence of human rights abuses was found and shared widely online.

Many, like Berkdar, hope those responsible will be held accountable.

“No one must be left unpunished,” she said. “Legally, not through vengeance.”

Plenty of others, like Mugharbel, are still waiting for any news of their disappeared loved ones.

“I have relatives, I have my uncle,” he said. “I am still waiting for someone to send me a picture of him, his name, any piece of information on him.”

Re-emphasising his mixed feelings of joy and sadness as the fallen government’s prisons are broken open, Mugharbel said that “it is like someone losing a parent on their wedding day”.