Bassel Khartabil

Bassel Khartabil
File:Bassel Khartabil (Safadi).jpg
Native name	باسل خرطبيل
Born	Bassel Khartabil (1981-05-22) May 22, 1981 Damascus, Syria
Residence	Damascus, Syria Currently imprisoned in an unknown location
Nationality	Syrian
Occupation	Software engineer
Known for	Aiki Framework, Openclipart, Open Font Library, Fabricatorz, Mozilla, Creative Commons
Awards	Index on Censorship 2013 Digital Freedom Award
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Bassel Khartabil (Arabic: باسل خرطبيل‎‎), also known as Bassel Safadi (Arabic: باسل صفدي‎‎), (born May 22, 1981) is a Palestinian Syrian open-source software developer. From March 15, 2012, the one-year anniversary of the Syrian uprising, he was detained by the Syrian government at Adra Prison in Damascus. As of October 3, 2015, he had been transferred to an unknown location, probably to be judged by a military court. On October 7, 2015, Human Rights Watch and 30 other human rights organizations issued a letter demanding that Khartabil's whereabouts be disclosed. On November 11, 2015, rumors surfaced that Khartabil had been secretly sentenced to death.

Khartabil was born in Damascus and raised in Syria, where he specializes in open source software development. He has been chief technology officer (CTO) and co-founder of collaborative research company Aiki Lab and was CTO of Al-Aous, a publishing and research institution dedicated to archaeological sciences and arts in Syria. He has served as project lead and public affiliate for Creative Commons Syria, and has contributed to Mozilla Firefox, Wikipedia, Openclipart, Fabricatorz, and Sharism. He "is credited with opening up the Internet in Syria and vastly extending online access and knowledge to the Syrian people."

His most recent work includes a 3D virtual reconstruction of the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria, real time visualization, and development with Fabricatorz for the web programming framework Aiki Framework.

Detention

On March 15, 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 tortured for five days by Military Branch 215. Security forces raided Khartabil's house, confiscating his computer and other effects. He was then transferred to the Interrogation Division Branch 248 and detained there incommunicado for 9 months. On December 9, 2012, Khartabil was brought to a hearing before a military prosecutor without an attorney present, and accused of "harming state security". Khartabil was then sent to the Adra Prison in Damascus.

On December 12, 2013, a request for written answer on the question of Bassel'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 March 18, 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 April 21, 2015, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) adopted an Opinion on Bassel 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.

Personal life

Bassel was arrested a few days before his marriage contract to Noura Ghazi, a lawyer and human rights activist, was to be signed. The contract was finalized later that year, while Bassel was in prison. The couple first met in Douma in April 2011 after coming back from a demonstration.

On Valentine's Day 2015, Noura made public a love letter she wrote Bassel where she reflects on what has taken place in Syria in the time Bassel has been imprisoned:

Bassel, I am very afraid, I am afraid about the country that is being slaughtered, divided, bleeding, being destroyed.. Ouch Bassel, I am very afraid that our dream is changing from seeing ourselves being the generation freeing their country to the one witnessing its destruction. Ouch Bassel, I am very afraid …

— Noura Ghazi, A Love Letter to Jailed Syrian-Palestinian Bassel Khartabil

Awards

For its 2012 list of Top Global Thinkers, Foreign Policy named Bassel together with Rima Dali as #19 for "insisting, against all odds, on a peaceful Syrian revolution."

On March 21, 2013 Bassel was awarded Index on Censorship's Digital Freedom Award. Although still detained at the time in Adra Prison, Bassel was able to communicate his gratitude through Dana Trometer and Jon Phillips receiving the award on his behalf, wherein he paid "respect to all the victims of the struggle for freedom of speech, and, especially for those non-violent youths who refused to carry arms and deserve all the credit for this award."

#FREEBASSEL campaign

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Missing Bassel Posters at Creative Commons Global Summit 2015 in Seoul

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A drawing on a wall, mostly in Korean. The English text says, "WIFI: FREE BASSEL PASSWORD: MISSING BASSEL."

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Poster of the #FREEBASSEL campaign

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CC Global Summit July 2015

A digital reconstruction of the Temple of Bel from the New Palmyra project

2012

After his detention became widely known in early July 2012, a global campaign was launched calling for his immediate release. Notable Internet companies like Mozilla, Wikipedia, Global Voices, EFF and Creative Commons wrote letters to the Syrian government urging Bassel's immediate release. Notable individuals like Lawrence Lessig, Joi Ito, Mitchell Baker, Jillian York, Mohamed Nanabhay and Barry Threw wrote public letters of support. And, international press such as Al Jazeera, Framablog, Hackernews published about the effort.

In October, Amnesty International released a document with information suggesting that Bassel has been ill-treated and even tortured. On October 23, the Taiwan chapter of Amnesty International led a letter-writing event at Insomnia Cafe to raise awareness about Bassel in Taipei, Taiwan. On November 26, Bassel was announced to be one of the top 100 global thinkers by Foreign Policy.

In December, Bassel was moved to a military prison to await a military trial. In response, a fasting campaign was launched to raise awareness about Bassel's deteriorating incarceration situation.

2013

On January 25, 2013, reports were circulating about Bassel's pending trial and fears of his execution.

On March 15, the #FREEBASSEL project lead a #FREEBASSELDAY campaign with Creative Commons, Mozilla, and other community leaders which resulted in the creation of public artworks, meetups, press, and videos.

On May 22, commemorating Bassel Khartabil's 32nd birthday—the second time he spent a birthday in prison as well as the 799th day of the Syrian conflict—the Index on Censorship, Creative Commons, and the #FREEBASSEL campaign joined forces to celebrate Khartabil's achievements and to encourage others to send birthday wishes. His mother wrote, "I just want him free, I pray for him to be free and I pray for all his friends who believe and work on Bassel’s freedom." In addition, by publicly launching Project Sunlight, the advocacy groups encourage action to uncover more information about Khartabil's condition and location.

At the Index on Censorship Awards, Jon Phillips stated about Bassel, "Lock-up, Lock-out fails. Locking-up Bassel, only locks-out his personal freedom. By locking-up Bassel, his Syrian captors are accidentally locking-out themselves from the future...thousands of people that Bassel’s work helped, now help him by spreading the message #FREEBASSEL. This is what truly builds Syria and connects it to the global connected future. This award proves that his lock-up, is NOT a lock-out of his digital freedom." On December 10, the Freebassel project, along with other signers, sent a letter to the European Union Parliament.

2014

On January 23, 2014, Marc Weidenbaum and the #FREEBASSEL campaign launched an iteration of his Disquiet Junto project in honor of Bassel, where participants in the online musical composition group were invited to "complete" Bassel's unfinished 3D visualization of Palmyra and "create a soundscape of between one and three minutes that might be employed in an immersive, completed digital visualization of ancient Palmyra." 38 musical compositions were created as part of the project.

On March 15, the #FREEBASSEL project led a second iteration of the #FREEBASSELDAY campaign with Creative Commons, the Wikimedia Foundation, and other community leaders and supporters. This involved a Wikipedia "edit-a-thon", meetups, the creation of a cookbook in Bassel's honor, and press mentions.

On September 1, journalist and human rights activist Rebecca MacKinnon wrote about Bassel and the Zone 9 Bloggers in the World Policy Journal. Subsequently, in October, Wikipedia hosted an editathon for zone 9 bloggers. Three months later, on December 10, Global Voices led a campaign on Human Rights Day to raise awareness about Bassel Khartabil's imprisonment.

2015

On March 15, 2015, #FREEBASSEL supporters met up in San Francisco at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and online for a Wikipedia edit-a-thon for #FREEBASSELDAY 2015. In addition, the Creative Commons Arab World organized a virtual Arabic Wikipedia edit-a-thon to translate and expand pages related to Bassel and his interests. On September 24, Bassel was profiled with the launch of the EFF's Offline project "sharing the stories of imprisoned technologists and technology users."

As of September 12, Jaysh al-Islam shelled and stormed the prison, taking control of two buildings. Until early October he was still in Adra Prison in the suburbs of Damascus, Syria. By October 3, he was transferred to an unknown location, probably to be judged by a military court.

On October 6, 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 October 17, Creative Commons Board of Directors approved a resolution calling for Bassel Khartabil's release. On October 21, 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 November 9, after a five-day book sprint involving 44 contributors, an anthology of personal reflections on Bassel Khartabil together with essays on free culture, entitled The Cost of Freedom: A Collective Inquiry, was released under a Creative Commons public domain license. Two days afterward, rumors surfaced that Khartabil had been secretly sentenced to death.

External links

• #FREEBASSEL
• Interview with Bassel about the role of Creative Commons in the Arab world (in Arabic)
• Podcast Interview with Bassel and Jon Phillips on hackerspaces and making culture in the Arab world
• Statement by US Secretary of State, John Kerry