Syria Arrests Filmmaker Who Helped Crackdown Victims

Man helped people rendered homeless or jobless by loyalist forces.

Security forces in Syria have arrested a documentary film-maker who helped people made homeless or jobless by troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, his friends said on Friday, part of an apparent crackdown on the country's secular intelligentsia.

Arwa Nairabiya - who founded the "Damascus Dox Box" documentary film festival - was arrested at Damascus airport on Thursday evening before boarding a plane to Cairo, fellow film-makers and relatives said.

The 35-year-old was part of a new generation of Syrian film-makers and had defied a state ban on culture before the revolt against Assad began 17 months ago.