Freelance | Imprisoned in Syria | March 28, 2012

Job:Camera Operator, Photographer
Medium:Internet
Beats Covered:Human Rights, War
Gender:Male
Local or Foreign:Local
Freelance:Yes
Charge:No charge
Length of Sentence:Not Sentenced
Reported Health Problems:No

Othman, who ran a makeshift media center in the besieged Baba Amr district of Homs, was initially held by a military intelligence unit in Aleppo and then transferred to Damascus, Paul Conroy, a photographer for The Sunday Times, said in an interview with the U.K.'s Channel 4.

Conroy, who was injured in the government attack on the Baba Amr media center that killed journalists Marie Colvin and Rémi Ochlik, said Othman was instrumental in getting journalists in and out of the embattled district. He said Othman, originally a vegetable vendor, was one of the first Syrians to use video to document the unrest in Homs. Citizen journalists such as Othman filled the information void as the Syrian regime barred international journalists from entering the country to cover the civil war, CPJ research shows.

Othman appeared on Syrian state television in May 2012 for what the station described as an interview. The questioning was aimed at asserting a theory of an international media conspiracy against the Syrian regime.

International reporters and diplomats, including the U.K.'s then Foreign Secretary William Hague, said they were concerned that Othman has been tortured while in custody, according to news reports. The reports did not specify details of what allegedly happened to him.

As of late 2017, the Syrian mission to the United Nations Authorities had not responded to CPJ's email requesting information on Othman's health, whereabouts, or legal status.

Thousands of Syrians have disappeared into Syrian custody since the start of the uprising in 2011. According to a 2015 Human Rights Watch report, families are often forced to pay large bribes to learn any information about their relatives, and other families never approach the security branches for fear of being arrested themselves. Of 27 families of deceased prisoners interviewed by Human Rights Watch for the report, only two received formal death certificates.

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