Bassel Khartabil is a Syrian open source advocate and software engineer who is spending his 32nd birthday in prison. Bassel is also a Creative Commons volunteer who is greatly missed at the CC community. So on his second birthday in prison the CC community along with friends and family members of Bassel created a hashtage for #FreeBassel to wish him a Happy “Free” Birthday for next year.
Bassel was arrested in March 15th of 2012. Unlike what the regime clams, Bassel is not rebelled and he wasn’t carrying weapons or fighting when he got arrested. Instead, Bassel is a great talented young person in Syria. He was awarded an Index on Censorship Digital Freedom Award (sponsored by Google) for his work before the arrest.
The Free Bassel campaign has started ever since he got detained. Friends, the CC community and those interested in his case hashtage through it whenever a campaign for Bassel is going on.
However, on Bassel's second birthday in prison, this hashtage then just became one to wish Bassl a free birthday. A lot of different people and organization wished Bassel a free Happy Birthday hashtaging for a #freebassel.
Finally, Bassel is no different than many other talented people detained in the dark basements of the regime prisons. The regime clams that they are only running after the armed group, but after a year and few month of detaining someone like Bassel the question about the reality of that to be in the air.