Nizar Nayyouf

Nizar Nayyouf (also Nayuf or Nayouf; ; born 29 May 1962) is a Syrian journalist, human rights activist, and dissident. He was one of the founding members of the Committee for the Defence of Democratic Freedom, a banned political organization in Syria, as well as editor-in-chief of صوت الديمقراطيِّة Sawt al-Democratiyya . He has criticized the Syrian government for human rights abuses, for which he was arrested and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in 1991, most of which he spent in Mezzeh prison outside Damascus.

While in prison, Nayyouf was confined to isolation cells and tortured on a regular basis, which left him unable to walk. He was also denied cancer treatment unless he would recant his criticism of the government, but refused. On 6 May 2001, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad granted Nayyouf's release on humanitarian grounds on the date of Pope John Paul II's visit to Syria. Nayyouf subsequently moved to France, where he remains politically active and continues to call for democracy in Syria.

Nayyouf has won numerous awards for his work including the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 2000, and the Golden Pen of Freedom Award in 2001. He has been named a World Press Freedom Hero by the International Press Institute.

Early life and work Nayyouf was born in Lattakia, Syria, in 1962. He was educated at the University of Damascus, where he earned degrees in political economy and economic development. After university, Nayyouf pursued a career in journalism, beginning as a freelancer. Nayyouf also contributed regularly to the Al-Hurriya Weekly. Nayyouf is married and has one daughter. After his arrest, Nayyouf was tortured at the Palestine Branch of Syrian Military Intelligence. Provisions guaranteeing the rights of the accused under the Constitution of Syria are not binding on the SSSC, which tries political and national security cases, and lawyers representing Nayyouf and the other defendants were not allowed to meet with them before the trial. During the trial, the CDF defendants reported being tortured in custody, which the presiding judge ignored. International observers at Nayyouf's trial stated that it did not meet international standards of judicial fairness. Nayyouf was sentenced on 17 March 1992 to 10 years of hard labour.

During his imprisonment, Nayyouf became partially paralysed from the legs down due to being tortured daily over the first two months, for which he was denied treatment unless he would promise to discontinue his political activism in Syria, which he refused. Nayyouf received the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 2001, while he was still jailed and in very poor health. International outcry ensued in response to the incident, which had occurred just as Nayyouf was planning to release information detailing Syrian human rights abuses, but the government denied involvement. However, Nayyouf was granted a full release and his travel ban was lifted, hours before President Bashar al-Assad was due to visit Paris. Nayyouf moved to France and then the UK, as he applied for political asylum, while he sought medical treatment for the injuries he suffered from torture during his confinement, which left him partially paralysed. According to Nayyouf's attorney, lawyers for the ruling Ba'ath Party accused Nayyouf of "attempting to change the constitution by illegal means, creating sectarian strife, and publishing reports harmful for the state", and ordered him to appear in Syria for an investigation in September 1992. After his release, Nayyouf has continued to speak out against human rights violations in Syria, targeting torture, deaths in detention, and executions including the Tadmor Prison massacre on 27 June 1980, in which over 1,000 accused Islamists were executed at Palmyra prison.

On 26 May 2002, Nayyouf missed a planned appearance at the 55th World Freedom Congress in Bruges, Belgium, where he was to be formally presented with the Golden Pen of Freedom (an award he had won in 2000 while imprisoned), prompting widespread concern for his safety. Members of the Congress alerted police, who initiated an international search. On 27 May, he was found safe in a hospital near Brussels. According to Nayyouf, unknown persons took him from his hotel room and forced him into a car. He was driven for several hours before being left in a forest more than away. He was found by a passerby in a car and taken to the hospital at Anderlecht, where police found him. Nayyouf accused the Syrian government of being behind the abduction, and stated that his abductors had offered to allow him to return to Syria if he would withdraw his claims of human rights abuses by the Assad government.

In 2004, Nayyouf gave an interview to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf in which he claimed that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein hid his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in Syria before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. Nayyouf claimed that officers of the Special Republican Guard organized the smuggling in collaboration with relatives of Bashar al-Assad including Dhu al-Himma Shalish and Assif Shoakat, who is also CEO of Bhaha, an import/export company owned by the Assad family. Nayyouf identified sites near the cities of al-Baida, Tell Sinan, and Sjinsjar as alleged holding sites for Iraqi WMDs.