The death of Akram Raslan, an artist known for his

political cartoons A political cartoon, a form of editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically combine ...

, at the hands of the

government of Syria Government of the Syrian Arab Republic is the union government created by the constitution of Syria where by the president is the head of state and the prime minister is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Sy ...

brought condemnation from various publications around the world. Drawing themes from the Syrian civil war, Raslan had drawn images expressing criticism of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and Assad's actions against the Syrian people, as well as criticism of institutions such as the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

. While the cartoonist died in 2013, partial confirmation of the facts around the event were not released until 2015. However, many details remain uncertain.

Background

Akram Raslan was born in the Syrian city of Hama in 1974. He was awarded the

Cartoonists Rights Network, International Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI) is a non-profit organisation created in 1999 in the United States by Dr. Robert "Bro" Russell. It looks to protect the human rights and creative freedom of social and editorial cartoonists An edi ...

(CRNI)'s 2013 winner of the Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning. Since the Syrian Civil War, along with many of Syria's artists, poets, writers and activists, Raslan remained incarcerated. He reportedly faced

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

at the hands of his captors. The news service Albawaba.com ran an article commenting that the "story of Raslan's detainment has become a disturbingly common one for Syrian dissidents."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raslan, Akram Syrian cartoonists People from Hama Syrian contemporary artists Syrian male artists 1974 births 2013 deaths

Background

See also

References