Mazen al-Hamada Activist who survived to tell story of torture found dead in notorious prison

When he spoke to lawmakers and lecture theatres around the world, Mazen al-Hamada's face told the story of the brutal torture enacted by the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

- Ruth Michaelson

The discovery of the Syrian activist's body inside the notorious Sednaya prison on the outskirts of Damascus brought news that he had not lived to see its downfall.

Hamada's sunken eyes and haunted face, his tears as he described the depth of horrors he had experienced, made him a symbol of the crimes the Assad regime committed against those who spoke out against it.

Hamada was detained and tortured alongside tens of thousands after the 2011 uprising against Assad's rule.

"Mazen had endured torture so cruel, so unimaginable, that his retellings carried an almost otherworldly weight. When he spoke, it was as if he stared into the face of death itself, pleading with the angel of mortality for just a little more time," wrote Hamada's friend, the Palestinian photographer and director Sakir Khader.

He "became one of the most important witnesses against Assad's regime," he added.

Details of the scale of detention and torture facilities run by the Syrian state are now surfacing.