Imprisoned Syrian Human Rights Activist at Risk of Death

Who is Nizar Nayouf?

Nizar was born in Syria on May 29, 1962. He graduated from the University of Damascus in 1986 with a degree in political economy, and earned a master's degree in economic development from the same institution in 1987. He is married to Nada Chahoud, and they have one child, Sara.

Nizar was a founding member of the independent Committees for the Defense of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights in Syria (CDF), a nascent human rights network that the government effectively crushed between December 1991 and March 1992. According to Syrians interviewed by Human Rights Watch in Damascus, Aleppo, and other cities, Nizar was a driving force behind CDF and a strong advocate that the young organization maintain its independence from various unauthorized political parties.

Syrian security forces began a massive nationwide crackdown on CDF in December 1991, rounding up its activists and supporters and their relatives. Nizar, a leading figure in the group, went into hiding. His wife Nada was arrested in Latakia in January 1992, along with his daughter Sara, who was then just under two years old, to put pressure on Nizar to turn himself in. During the search of the house at the time of Nada's arrest, security forces confiscated books, extensive newspaper clippings that chronicled the history of Syria's political parties, original texts of Nizar's writings, and personal photographs. Only the photographs were returned.

Seventeen suspected CDF activists, including Nizar, were tried by the Supreme State Security Court in February and March 1992, charged with membership in an illegal organization and distribution without permission of leaflets critical of the government. Fourteen were sentenced to between three and ten years in prison, and Nizar received the longest sentence. The proceedings of the court did not meet international fair trial standards. Defense attorneys were not permitted to meet with their clients prior to the proceedings or introduce evidence on their behalf. The defendants complaints about torture under interrogation were ignored by the judges. The convictions and sentences were not reviewed by a higher tribunal, as required under international law.

Nizar has permanent spinal injuries as a result of one month of torture following his arrest, when he was placed in the "German Chair" at the Palestine Branch of Military Intelligence, one of Syria's internal security forces.The injuries to his spine were worsened in 1993, when he was transferred from Sednaya prison, a civilian facility, to Tadmor military prison, where he was hanged and beaten with an iron pipe. Nizar is partially paralyzed in his lower extremities. He can move about only by crawling, and prison authorities have not provided him with a wheelchair. Nizar was also burned with cigarettes at the Palestine Branch, which has left his skin disfigured. He also suffers from incontinence, left kidney failure, a bleeding gastric ulcer, and severely deteriorating eyesight.

At the time of his arrest, Nizar was working on his doctoral dissertation, "Capital Evolution and Dependent Production in Syria, 1838-1963." He also published three volumes of poetry, including "A Pipe for Smoking Dreams," a collection of political poems. In September 1996, Human Rights Watch wrote to President Asad about Nizar's prolonged solitary confinement in Mezze prison, and urged his transfer to a civilian prison. The letter went unanswered.

During his imprisonment, Nizar received a Freedom-to-Write award from PEN American Center. He also was awarded a Hellman-Hammett grant from a program for writers suffering poltical persecution, which is administered by Human Rights Watch at the request of the trustees of the estates of American writers Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett.

Human Rights Watch has long campaigned for the release of Syrian political prisoners who have been detained without charge or sentenced to long prison terms by the Supreme State Security Court solely because they exercised the right to freedom of expression and freedom of association. We have documented and publicly criticized practices of the security court which have not met international fair trial standards, such as the trial in 1992 that resulted in the lengthy imprisonment of Nizar Nayouf and other human rights activists affiliated with CDF.