°®Âþµº

Warning: This article contains explicit description of torture methods that some readers may find distressing.

Prominent Syrian activist Mazen al-Hamada was reportedly found dead in theÌýAssad regime's most notorious torture prison of Saydnaya on Monday, days after the fall of the Baathist regime and the release of detainees in jails.

His body was reportedly found at a morgue in the Harasta Hospital linked with Saydnaya, where the Syrian regime disposed of inmates' bodies before burying them in mass graves.

It had visible signs of torture and beatings, according to reports.

Tributes have poured in for the activist, who became a symbol of Syria's tortured detainees over the years with his slender frame, haunted expression and visible signs of psychological trauma.

"I’m sorry I couldn’t save you. I hope you know in heaven that we freed Syria after all. My friend, brother and work colleague and a martyr for freedom," .

Hailing from Deir az-Zour, al-Hamada began taking part in the anti-government protests in 2011, which swept the region during the Arab Spring at the time. He was arrested for the first time in April of that year, before being arrested again later in December.

He was apprehended again by regime forces in 2012 alongside two of his nephews, for smuggling baby formula to a Damascus suburb – which was then under siege following the outbreak of the civil war.

Hamada endured repeated physical and sexual assaults during his detention in multiple prisons, including being suspended from his wrists. He was forced to confess to crimes he did not commit.

He was released in 2014 and returned briefly to his hometown before seeking asylum in the Netherlands after Deir az-Zour fell to the Islamic State group.

During his time in exile, al-Hamada fought tirelessly to shed light on the brutality of the Assad regime's prisons. ÌýHe went on to host a conference, give testimonies to raise awareness on detainees and forced disappearances in his war-torn homeland and took part in procedures to prosecute Assad and his regime.

"As soon as we entered the [Air Force Intelligence Branch], they started beating us with sticks and made us take off our clothes and stand naked. They tied our hands before we had to enter the Air Force branch cell," he once said.

Hamada said in one testimony that he was subject to hanging, sexual abuse, hot oil and boiling water thrown onto him, as well as cigarettes being burned on his body.

"God will hold them to account. The law will hold them to account. I will not rest until I take them to court and get justice", he once said during a tearful testimony.

In one of his interviews, the activist also vowed to seek justice for his friends who were killed by the regime.

In 2020, al-Hamada returned to Syria from Germany after being "promised" amnesty by the Syrian regime, while some activists said he returned to visit his family and was suffering psychologically. Hamada was immediately faced with arbitrary arrest upon his return, was forcibly disappeared and unheard of since.

Campaign groups such as the Syrian Emergency Task Force began working on raising awareness of al-Hamada's disappearance soon after, but to no avail.

Social media has been flooded with posts from activists, journalists and Syrians in general, expressing sadness at al-Hamada's fate.

Journalist Ward Najjar said: "They killed Mazen several times, his heart, mind and feelings died, each one separately, and now after the fall of the tyrant and his executioners, a picture of Mazen's body has spread and we have realised that he died physically, but his memory has not and will not die in us, and we will even immortalise it for future generations."

Activists believe that he was killed in recent days, during the capture of Damascus by the Syrian opposition rebels over the weekend, which led to the ousting of Assad.

During the fall of Damascus, Saydnaya was soon taken over by the rebels. Hundreds of prisoners were freed in the aftermath, while the search for more potential inmates held in the prison’s underground cells remained ongoing.

The prison is considered among the most notorious symbols of the Assad regime’s brutality, where the former president's most prominent opponents found themselves subject to inhumane conditions, and many were met with death.