activist

Aaref Dalila

عارف دليلة

Journeys

Aaref Dalila: The Economist Who Told Syria the Truth

Aaref Dalila was a professor of economics at Damascus University who spent the early years of Bashar al-Assad's rule speaking truth about Syria's economic failures. He signed the Statement of 99 in 2000, participated in Damascus Spring forums, and was arrested in 2001. In 2002, a Syrian State Security Court sentenced him to 10 years in prison on charges that were effectively his speech. He served the full term. His case became one of the defining examples of the Damascus Spring's suppression and the Assad government's use of the judiciary to silence intellectual dissent.

Biography

Aaref Dalila is a Syrian economist and dissident who served as dean of the Faculty of Economics at Damascus University. A founding member of the Damascus Spring intellectual movement, he was arrested in 2001 and sentenced to ten years in prison for calling for democratic reforms. His incarceration became a symbol of the regime's suppression of peaceful intellectual opposition.

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Journeys1

Key Facts

Born:1945

Place:Masyaf, Hama, Syria

Nationality:Syrian