Sad scenes were on display at Gibran Khalil Gibran park in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, this week. Mrs Fadwa, the wife of Syrian detainee Abdulaziz al-Khayer stood in the middle of a circle of candles with the friends of Khayer, meeting to commemorate the second anniversary of his detention.
At dusk, dozens of Syrian dissidents arrived. Some carried signboards asking the international community to act or "to release the detainees in Syria".
Khayer and his colleagues, Maher at-Tahan and Ias Ayyash, were kidnapped in the vicinity of Damascus International Airport in 2012. He was returning to Syria after a political visit to China. His wife accuses the Syrian regime of kidnapping her husband.
"The Syrian regime claims that my husband was kidnapped in the airport's vicinity, but we are sure he is there in regime prisons," she said. She held back tears as she looked at the picture of Tahan.
Fadwa attends the anniversary not only as the wife of Khayer, but also as the mother of Tahan. Fadwa talked about the fate of her country on behalf of her detained husband and son.
"Enough detentions, enough suppression; we have had enough blood," she said.
Many of Tahan's friends attended the anniversary also. Young men carried signboards they used to carry in Damascus, comparing "the bullets of the Syrian security forces and the friendly faces of Lebanese security forces".
Khayer was arrested on 21 September, 2012 outside Damascus Airport. He was returning from China, where he represented the National Coordination Commission of Democratic Change in meetings dedicated to discuss the political situation in Syria. The Commission then tried to communicate with the regime, hoping to find an internal solution for the crisis.
Khayer believed in the possibility of a dialogue with the Syrian regime, despite being detained in 1992, after which he stayed in prison for 13 years because he was a member of the Communist Labor Party and a prominent activist among the Syrian opposition.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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