The journalist Mohamed Omar al-Khatib has died under torture in Sednaya prison, after two and a half years of detention, according to the Media Center of Muaddamieht al-Sham.
In news published on its website, the center said Khatib was arrested on 8 January, 2012 in an ambush set up at Mezzeh Military Airport, on the outskirts of Damascus.
He was shot in the legs and later taken to a prison in Qaimariyah, before being transferred to Sednaya prison. Regime security forces told his family of his death 45 days ago and asked them to come to collect his body.
Khatib, 34, was a economic journalist with Al-Watan newspaper before the outbreak of the Syrian revolution. When the popular movement in Mouadamiyeh against the Assad regime started, he was one of the first to participate in the peaceful movement and demonstrations in the streets.
Abu Ahmed, an activist with the media center in the city told All4syria that Khatib is the second journalist from the city to be killed inside Sednaya prison. Two months ago, the television director Bilal Ahmad Bilal died under torture in Sednaya prison, after more than two years of detention.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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