Detained Open Source Activist May Be Tortured in Syria

Not a great place to be nabbed for any reason

In July, EFF called for the immediate release of open source developer and Creative Commons volunteer Bassel Khartabil, who had been detained in Syria since March 12, 2012 as part of a wave of arrests made in the Mazzeh district of Damascus. We felt that the situation was especially urgent in light of a recent Human Rights Watch report documenting the use of torture in 27 detention facilities run by Syrian intelligence agencies. Now it appears that our concerns were well-founded. According to a new Amnesty International report, a released detainee has informed Bassel Khartabil's family that he is being held at the Military Intelligence Branch in Kafr Sousseh and had been tortured and otherwise ill-treated.