After telling the world about the brutality he experienced in a Damascus prison, Mazen al-Hamada mysteriously returned to Syria, into the arms of his tormentors. His story goes to the heart of the Syria tragedy — a decade after the hopeful Arab Spring.
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After escaping from Syria to the Netherlands, Mazen al-Hamada shared his story about the horrors he had endured in a Damascus prison with audiences across the United States and Europe.
Then — mysteriously, inexplicably — just over a year ago, he returned to Syria, to risk again the cruelties of the government he had so strenuously denounced. He hasn’t been heard from since.
In an interview with audio producer Linah Mohammad, Post Beirut bureau chief Liz Sly paints a portrait of a man so haunted by the horrors he endured that he was unable to adapt to a new life in Europe, and explains how his story speaks to the post-Arab Spring Syria:
“Everything has changed and then nothing has changed, in the worst possible ways on both counts.”