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Mazen al-Hamada Syrian Activist

Hamada was a graduate of the Company’s Industrial Institute and worked as a tradesman for the French multinational oil and gas Schlumberger. He was later posted to Washington, DC, and became a staff member for the Syrian Emergency Task Force by the US State Department.

Mazen al-Hamda was a Syrian activist from Deir ez-Zor. Hamada was detained for over a year in 2011 for participating in anti-government protests in the context of the Arab Spring. After being deported from Syria, he became an asylum seeker in the Netherlands, where he testified publicly about the ill-treatment he suffered. In 2020, Hamada became a victim of enforced disappearance when he was arrested by Syrian intelligence at the airport upon returning to Syria.

Even after his release, Hamada was still wanted by the intelligence agencies. So he decided to leave Syria and applied for asylum in the Netherlands. Hamada’s body was found on 9 December 2024, when Free Syrian Army opposition forces took control of Sednaya prison during the fall of Damascus. Hamada is believed to have been killed a few days before his body was discovered, which bore extensive marks of torture and beatings.