Yassin al-Haj Saleh: 16 Years in Assad's Prison, Then the Revolution Took His Wife

Yassin al-Haj Saleh was arrested in 1980 at age 19 as a Communist student activist at Aleppo University. He was held for 16 years at Mezzeh Military Prison and Adra Prison without ever being formally tried. Released in 1996, he resumed writing and intellectual activity under surveillance. When the 2011 uprising began, he threw himself into support for the revolution, writing prolifically in Arabic about the nature of Assad's authoritarianism, the revolution's challenges, and the international community's failures. He remained in Damascus underground until late 2013, when his wife Samira was abducted by Jaish al-Islam. He fled Syria through Turkey. His book 'The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy' (2017) is considered the definitive insider account of Syria's revolution. From Berlin, he continues to write and speak about Syrian history, the failure of international solidarity, and the unresolved fate of his wife Samira al-Khalil, who remains missing as of 2024.