Taken Offline: Years in Prison for a Love of Technology
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EFF mentions contacting "the embassy in our country", I would assume they mean the Embassy of Syria, in this case. Unfortunately, I don't think that Syria has an embassy here in the US, as its operations were suspected last year.
Can we in the US do anything for Khartabil?
Edit: Actually, I see that the US officially recognized the opposition a few months back and that they will (or have) opened an embassy here: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-27287650
However, the article said that Khartabil's prison is on the front lines, and evenly split between the forces. Which side of the prison is he on, I wonder? I'll need to do additional research. In any case, my original question stands, which is what exactly can we do, what tone should the letter take, etc?
That prison will eventually be overrun and everybody freed, I guess the best thing to do is 'raise awareness' with whoever your local political representatives are like the EFF is doing so he doesn't just quietly dissappear should the regime forces left over decide to massacre the remaining prisoners before fleeing. There's a Syrian regime embassy in Russia you can contact, whether or not they will do anything who knows.
Or murdered. Given that the name 'Bassel' is likely Christian (Basil), it wouldn't surprise me to read that he's been slain.
I know this is a bit vague, but genuinely Bassel is in a very fluid situation right now. The attack on the prison was earlier this month, and we're still trying to understand what's going on and how to address it.
If you join the campaign at http://freebassel.org/, they will keep you updated. I'll be writing more about Bassel and the other cases at EFF's Deeplinks, too.