Razan Zaitouneh (sometimes spelled Zeitunah; ; born 29 April 1977) is a

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

and civil society

activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

. Actively involved in the Syrian uprising, she went into hiding after being accused by the government of being a foreign agent and her husband was arrested. Zaitouneh has documented

human rights in Syria There has been a varying nature of human rights under various governments that ruled Syria since the French colonial rule in Syria starting in the 1920s. History of human rights French rule (1920–1946) From the early 1920s until 1946, Sy ...

for the

Local Coordination Committees of Syria The Local Coordination Committees of Syria (; LCCSyria or LCCs) were a network of local groups that organise and report on protests as part of the Syrian uprising. In June 2011, the network was described by ''The New York Times'' as beginning to ...

. Zaitouneh was kidnapped on 9 December 2013, most likely by

Jaysh al-Islam Jaysh al-Islam (, meaning ''Army of Islam''), formerly known as Liwa al-Islam (, Brigade of Islam), is a coalition of Islamist rebel units involved in the Syrian Civil War. The group was part of the Free Syrian Army's Supreme Military Counc ...

. Her fate remains unknown. It is suspected that she has been killed.

Education

Zaitouneh graduated from law school in Damascus in 1999 and in 2001 started her work as a

Legal and human rights activism

She has been a member of the team of lawyers for defense of political prisoners since 2001. In the same year, Razan was one of the founders of the Human Rights Association in Syria (HRAS). In 2005, Razan Zaitouneh established SHRIL (the Syrian Human Rights Information Link), through which she continues to report about human rights violations in

. From 2005 through to her 2013 disappearance, Razan Zaitouneh was an active member of the Committee to Support Families of Political Prisoners in Syria. Syrian State television aired announcement that Razan Zaitouneh was a foreign agent on 23 March 2011, after which she went into hiding while continuing her legal and human rights work, in order to avoid being arrested. Zaitouneh founded the

Violations Documentation Center in Syria The Violations Documentation Center in Syria (VDC, ) is a network of Syrian opposition activists whose aim is to document human rights violations perpetrated since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, including victims of the violence, detaine ...

in April 2011 to document human rights violations and abuses in the country by all sides. She also contributed to human rights violations reports circulated by the

, of which she was one of the founders. Her husband, Wael Hamadeh (or Wael Hamada, or Wa'el Hammada) was arrested on 12 May 2011. His brother 'Abd al-Rahman Hammada was also arrested. Wael Hamadeh was questioned in prison about his wife's human rights work, then Wael Hamadeh released on 1 August 2011. On 27 October 2011, she was awarded the 2011

Sakharov Prize The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, commonly known as the Sakharov Prize, is an honorary award for individuals or groups who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom of thought. Named after Russian scienti ...

for Freedom of thought, jointly with four other Arabs. She was previously awarded the

Anna Politkovskaya Award The Anna Politkovskaya Award was established in 2006 to remember and honor the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya (1958–2006), murdered in Moscow on 7 October 2006 in order to silence her reporting about the war in Chechnya. The aw ...

by Reach All Women in War. In 2013 Razan Zaitouneh was granted the

International Women of Courage Award The International Women of Courage Award, also referred to as the U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award, is an American award presented annually by the United States Department of State to women around the world who have ...

2013 disappearance

Pro-opposition websites reported that on 9 December 2013 Zaitouneh had been kidnapped along with her husband, Wael Hamadeh, and two colleagues,

Samira Khalil Samira Khalil () is a Syrian dissident, former political detainee and a revolutionary activist from the Homs region of Syria. Khalil is currently missing after being abducted in Douma on December 9, 2013, along with fellow activists Razan Zaitou ...

and Nazem Hammadi, in the opposition-held town of Douma to the north of

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

. As of December 2015, their whereabouts were still unknown and the identity of the kidnappers uncertain, although it was suspected that the Islamist Salafi rebel group

was responsible. , the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

(AP) was unaware of significant evidence for Zaitouneh's fate. AP stated clues suggesting that Jaysh al-Islam had detained Zaitouneh and held her in Tawbeh Prison. Jaysh al-Islam denied the claim. One clue was a graffito seen by several witnesses on a prison cell wall stating, "I miss my mother – Razan Zaitouneh, 2016." Another clue was the use of one of the Violations Documentation Center computers, taken together with Zaitouneh in the December 2013 kidnapping, from a Jaysh al-Islam

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface i ...

at Tawbeh Prison. Another opposition activist,

Mazen Darwish Mazen Darwish () is a Syrian lawyer and free speech advocate. He is the president of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression. News organizations, including Reuters and the Associated Press, have described him as one of Syria's most ...

, stated that Zaitouneh was held by Jaysh al-Islam until early 2017. AP judged it likely that Zaitouneh had been killed. On 17 February 2020, one of the

Syrian intelligence agencies Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

declared that it had discovered a mass grave in al-Ub around the eastern Ghouta district, containing around 70 bodies. Russian sources speculated that of them appeared to be that of Razan Zaitouneh. In 2020, French authorities arrested Majdi Mustapha Nameh (''Islam Alloush'') in relation to Zaitouneh's disappearance. In March 2021, a criminal complaint was filed in France by the

International Federation for Human Rights The International Federation for Human Rights (; FIDH) is a non-governmental federation for human rights organizations. Founded in 1922, FIDH is the third oldest international human rights organization worldwide after Anti-Slavery International ...

(FIDH) and the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, holding Jaysh al-Islam responsible for her abduction. In July 2022, a clue reported by ''

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

'' was that two months after the abduction, a member of Jaysh al-Islam had used Zaitouneh's computer to log on to her social media accounts. The computer had been given to Zaitouneh through a project funded by the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

, enabling

geolocation Geopositioning is the process of determining or estimating the geographic position of an object or a person. Geopositioning yields a set of Geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinates (such as latitude and longitude) in a given map datum ...

and identification of the user. The ''Deutsche Welle'' investigation suggested that the abduction had been masterminded by two local Jaysh al-Islam leaders, ''Abu Qusai al-Dirani'' and ''Samir Kaakeh''. When the leader of Jaysh al-Islam at the time,

Zahran Alloush Zahran Alloush (, 1971 – 25 December 2015) was a Syrian Islamist rebel leader who was the commander of Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam), a major component of the Islamic Front, of which he was the military chief, and was described as one of the ...

, learnt about the abduction, he tried to negotiate an agreement to free her and three other abductees. However, Zahran Alloush was killed in a Russian airstrike. His successor and cousin, ''Mohammed Alloush'', refused to continue the proposals for a deal.Exclusive: How Syria's hard-line rebels turned against a human rights activist
17.07.2021, Lewis Sanders IV, Birgitta Schülke, Maria Chehadeh,

Awards

*Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2011 *The 2011

Anna Politkovskaya Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (; 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russians, Russian investigative journalist who reported on political and social events in Russia, in particular, the Second Chechen War (1999–2005). It was her repor ...

Award *The

Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought The Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought (; ) is a prestigious prize awarded in Germany which recognises independent, forward-thinking, individuals or organisations who have contributed to democracy and freedom of speech in the Arab world. ...

for the year 2012 in Berlin

Notes and references

External links

*
Profile
at

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