(Zaman Al Wasl)- The family of martyr Ali Othman has recently received a certificate from the civil registry in Homs stating that he died with his brother Ibrahim inside the prison after seven years of detention. Ali, nicknamed "Jeddo" (Grandfather), was one of the first protesters and activists in Homs who documented the demonstrations and peaceful movement of the Baba Amr neighborhood. He accompanied Western journalists who covered the events of the revolution and helped evacuate them from inside the neighborhood at the height of its targeting by the regime forces.
Ali Mahmoud Othman, also known as "Eyes of Homs", was listed in Zaman al-Wasl leaks in the list of 100,000 wanted in Syria. According to the data, Ali Othman, resident of Jisreen town, was wanted for the Intelligence Division.
The activist Khaled Abu Salah told Zaman al-Wasl that Othman was born in Baba Amr in 1978, and his family was one of the first involved in the revolution. He added that the Othman was not proficient in photography or journalism, but he wanted to work at the Baba Amr media center. He was a courageous young man who accompanied Western journalists who entered Baba Omar neighborhood to the sites of shelling and field hospitals, where he drove them in his Suzuki, and hence a friendly relationship between them.
Osman, who was originally a vegetable vendor, succeeded in helping French journalist Edith Bouvier, British journalists, William Daniels and Paul Conroy, and Spanish journalist Javier Espinosa when they were stuck in “the hell of Baba Amr" after the media center was targeted on February 22, 2012.
He played a key role in transporting them to Lebanon through tunnels. He also was the first to enter the scene where journalist Mary Colvin and her photographer colleague were killed, and photographed them.
During the regime’s offensive on Baba Amr neighborhood, on February 4, 2012, and its bombardment with rockets and artillery, people were forced out of the unsafe places while hundreds of missing remained with an unknown fate. At this time - says Abu Salah – Othman chose to stay, even after the army of the regime captured the neighborhood after bombing it continuously for a month. Othman was hiding in a house in Inchaat neighborhood adjacent to "Baba Amr," but was later forced to leave for Aleppo. There, he was arrested after being lured by a text message and his fate was not known until his death was announced. Our correspondent revealed that, at that time, the intelligence of the regime arrested Ali’s father, who was 70 years old and died shortly after, and 7 other members of his family, including his uncle, 65 years old, and his cousin and his wife on May 8, 2012 in Sahnaya suburb, south of the capital.
Abu Salah, who lived with Ali in the media center during the attack on Baba Amr, pointed to the lack of information on the arrest of Ali and his brother or their places of detention. But, regime television showed him in more than 20 episodes with regime journalist Rafiq Lutf, and tried to distort, through him, the account of the activists of the neighborhood about what was going on and to label the rebels as “terrorists”.
He added that the activists of the revolution in Baba Amr were then reluctant to respond to what Othman was forced to say under duress on the regime television to save his life, especially as the effects of torture were visible on his face. Our correspondent added that all of Ali’s confessions seemed to be extracted by force, and if it is proven that he died in detention, the regime and Rafiq Lutf are responsible for it.
He pointed out that the reason for the focus on activist Ali Othman is because he was a valuable catch for the regime and because Homs was then the capital of the revolution, and Baba Amr was one of the most important neighborhoods in the city. The regime thought that if the image of the revolution was distorted in Baba Amr, it could distort it all over the city and destroy the narrative of the Syrian revolution and of the activists.
Abu Salah adds that Othman had a close relationship with a number of journalists, including foreign journalists who praised his courage and his noble human attitudes. Most of them wrote on their accounts at the time of his arrest and published reports on major media urging his release. The former British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, wrote, "I call on the Syrian authorities to release Mr. Othman and other political prisoners immediately. The Syrian regime will be held responsible for Mr. Othman’s safety and his treatment." In turn, Senator John
McCain tweeted, "[I] got reports that Syrian journalist Ali Mahmoud Othman is held and tortured by the Assad forces- world must call for his release."
Paul Connery of the Huffington Post website has mentioned that Othman "is one of the most active Syrian activists in the media."
"He took journalists to the front lines, to field hospitals or anywhere to document everything that was happening in Syria," Connery quoted activists saying that, "He was arrested by the military intelligence branch in Aleppo and was subjected to severe torture before being transferred to Damascus."
A family member living outside Syria informed Amnesty International that the family had learned from an unofficial source that Ali Mahmoud Othman had been transferred to Saidnaya military prison or the "human slaughterhouse" as described by international human rights organizations.
A report issued by the Syrian Human Rights Network pointed to the regime’s deliberate concealment of the fate of tens of thousands of detainees to inflict as much pain and humiliation on their families as possible in order to discipline them on their children’s demands for a change. The report, released in August 2018, published a summary of the enforced disappearances by the regime since March 2011, noting that 2012 and 2013 witnessed the largest number of enforced disappearances aimed at breaking and destroying the mass movement.
Zaman Al Wasl
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