Activist and Syrian human rights lawyer Razan Zaitouneh was born on April 29, 1977. At the age of 22 she graduated from law school and two years later she began working as a member of defense attorneys for political prisoners and got involved into the creation of Syrian Human Rights Association. In 2005 Zaitouneh founded the the Syrian Human Rights Information Link and became a part of the familiar supporting Syrian committee related to political prisoners.
Razan has been awarded with the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and the Anna Politkovskaya Award in 2011; during that same year agents from the government broke into her home and arrested her husband Wa’il Al-Hamada. Al-Hamada was captured and taken to an unknown place. There he was tortured for three months apparently.
Her brother Wa’il Al-Hamada who was just a 20 year old student was arrested in 2011. Zaitouneh’s parents were government targets too and were allegedly forced to hide. Those closest to Razan were persecuted to serve as punishment, and to try and make her stop her human rights work.
Razan Zaitouneh was granted the Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought in Berlin, 2012. One year later the International Women of Courage Award was given to her due to her bravery in spite of the circumstances. She had been hiding ever since the 2011 abduction of her kinds.
At the end of 2013, pro-opposition websites stated that Zaitouneh, her husband and two of her colleagues were abducted by armed and mask men. Razan and company were at the Violations Documentation Center; a non-governmental and independent group that documents the abuses committed by the Syrian government when it all happened.
The Army of Islam and the Islamist Salafi were the primary suspects regarding the kidnapping. Sadly their location remains a mystery and the identity of the kidnappers ambiguous.