Some years ago, I worked with Bassel Safadi on an early Book Sprint called ‘The Open Web,’ in Berlin. I can’t claim to be Bassel’s friend, but I know a lot of people that are his friends, and by all accounts, he is a great guy.
Bassel is an active Creative Commons and free software advocate. He is, as they say, ‘just like one of us’. As Lawrence Lessig said:
“In the middle east, the fight for freedom is generic: To stand for the right to create and share freely is to risk the most extreme response. Bassel is now suffering that most extreme response.”
On March 15, 2012, Bassel Safadi was detained in a wave of arrests in
the Mazzeh district of Damascus. Events recently have turned for the worse. According to the EFF on Oct 3rd: “Bassel was moved earlier today from Adra Prison. He was told to pack up his belongings with no prior warning, and taken to an unknown location.
There is currently speculation that he may have been transferred to the Military Field Court in Qaboun.”
https://www.eff.org/offline/bassel-khartabil
There is a letter of support online. If you could sign it that would be
fantastic… http://freebassel.org/campaign/letter/
Thanks…
