Mazen Darwish released

Mazen Darwish was finally released after spending more than three years in Prison. Darkish is a leading journalist and rights activist but was arrested January 2012 for “promoting terrorist acts”.M

Darwish has received multiple awards in the past for his work and has also won a UNESCO’s annual press freedom prize. His wife, Yara Bader accepted the award on his behalf though.

Darwish was punished for expressing his opinion, and even though himself and his two colleagues Hussein Ghreir and Hani al-Zaitani called the media rights group multiple times they were still arrested. Mazen’s wife has said that he has “already forgiven those who tortured him almost to death.”

Right now around 200,000 people are held in the Syrian government detention centers, prisons and security facilities, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor. Last year though President Bashar al-Assad signed an amnesty to hopefully help free thousands of political prisoners but activists are now saying only a few hundred have actually been freed.