Khalil Maatouk is a

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

n lawyer and

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

defender. Arrested at a roadblock in October 2012, he has been missing since then.

Biography

Khalil Maatouk, a Syrian lawyer of Christian faith has defended many Syrian

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

s, including

defender

Mazen Darwish Mazen Darwish ( ar, مازن درويش) 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 ...

. The

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

activist Mazen Adi and the president of the Syrian League for Human Rights Abdel Karim Rihaoui. In 2004, Khalil Maatouk worked as an observer for

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. Khalil Maatouk is also the president of the Syrian Center for the Defense of Prisoners of conscience. His position as director of the "Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research" earned him a travel ban from 2005 to 2011. His daughter, a student, was also arrested and held for 2 months in 2014, by military security.

Forced Disappearance

On October 2, 2012, Khalil Maatouk was arrested with his friend and assistant, Mohammed Zaza (also spelled Mohammed Thatha), when they were on their way to work in Damascus. They were stopped and arrested at a government check point. For his severe lung disease Khalil Maatouk could not move around alone, his colleague was driving him. For a long time after their arrest no one was able to find anything about them.

Imprisonment

Syrian authorities have always denied the detention of Khalil Maatouk. However, former detainees have testified that they have seen him in different prisons. Unofficial sources report that Maatouk was notably imprisoned within Branch 285 of state security near

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

, then in the Aviation Safety Branch in Damascus, while his health conditions were in a worrying state. He was last seen in September 2013, in Military Security Branch 235, Damascus, known as the Palestine Branch. During his detention, several

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s and

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

s called for his release, reminding Bashar al-Assad of their fears for his health.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maatouk, Khalil

Human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

Activists Activism (or Advocacy) 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 greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

Political prisoners in Syria