Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2011

Although she is one the five winners of this year's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the Parliament decided not to publish photos of Razan Zaitouneh, who is still in hiding from the government somewhere in Syria.

A human rights lawyer and a journalist, she created a blog called "Syrian Human Rights Information Link" (SHRIL), which reported on atrocities in Syria. She publicly revealed murders and human rights abuses committed by the Syrian army and police.

Her posts and tweets were an important source of information for the international media. She is now hiding from the authorities who accuse her of being a foreign agent and have arrested her husband and younger brother.

Among her causes are the defence of the rights of political prisoners in Syria. She was raising funds to ensure their defence and denounced systematic violations of human rights by the authorities on her blog.

Her aim is the sacking of President Bassar Al Assad and his trial before the International Criminal Court.

Aware of her growing influence, Assad's forces tried to silence her. On May 12, security forces searched her home and tried to arrest her. They did not find her and instead arrested her husband and detained him for over three months in an unknown location. According to a source at Front Line, the aged parents of Razan Zaitouneh also had to flee to escape arrest.

On 8. September, Razan Zaitouneh's posted her last twitter entry. In a telephone interview published on 14 November from Damascus. She said that protests continue and that the death count has gone beyond the 3,500 estimated by the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights.