The campaign #Their Freedom Is Their Right to defend Arab prisoners of opinion, which is launched by “Maharat” Foundation and the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) and joined by the Arab Group members of IFEX International Network, has settled on Razan Zaitouneh, a human rights activist, to be the campaign’s prisoner of February 2016.
Razan Zaitouneh was born in 1977. She has been one of the most prominent lawyers and human rights activists defending political prisoners in Syria since 2001. She has played a key role in efforts to defend human rights for all people and protect independent groups and Syrian activists. Along with a number of other activists, Zaitouneh established the Violations Documentation Center in Syria (VDC), and co-founded in April 2011 the Local Coordination Committees (LCCs), which co-ordinate the work of local committees in various cities and towns across Syria. She also established the Local Development and Small Projects Support Office, which assists non-governmental organizations in Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus.
At the start of the Syrian uprising, Zaitouneh was forced into hiding owing to her media activism, so as to convey the truth and what is happening on the ground to the various media outlets, especially the violations (detention, torture,killing, and harassment) committed against citizens.
Zaitouneh’s home located in Damascus was stormed, in May 2011, by the Air Force Intelligence, which searched the house and confiscated many of her papers and personal belongings. The Air Force Intelligence, then, detained Razan’s brother-in-law together with her husband, activist Wa’el Hammada, who both had been held incommunicado for three months before being released.