Syrian air force pilot Ragheed Al-Tatari before and after his imprisonment. Collage made on Canva Pro by Rami Alhames, using screenshots from YouTube Video uploaded by user boschev. Fair use.

Ragheed Al-Tatari's name has become a symbol of moral courage in the context of the Syrian regime’s brutal history. A former pilot in the Syrian Air Force, Al-Tatari made a decision that cost him 43 years of his life in prison: he refused to bomb the city of Hama in 1982. At the time, Hama was rising against the authoritarian regime of Hafez al-Assad, and the regime’s response was catastrophic.

Refusing military orders

Syrian President Hafez al-Assad alongside his brother Rifaat al-Assad at a military ceremony in Damascus, 1984. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Under Assad's orders, the Syrian military launched a full-scale assault on the city, led by his brother Rifaat Assad, one of the most brutal crackdowns in the history of modern Syria. Thousands of civilians were killed during the massacre. Patrick Seale, reporting in The Globe and Mail, described the operation as a “two-week orgy of killing, destruction and looting” which destroyed the city and killed a minimum of 25,000 inhabitants. Al-Tatari, however, could not bring himself to carry out the orders. Faced with the horrifying prospect of bombing civilians, he chose to defy his superiors and instead refused to follow through with the mission. For his act of defiance, the Syrian regime sentenced him to an extraordinary 43 years in prison. His act of conscience would not only change his life but also resonate deeply within the collective memory of Syrians, especially in Hama.

According to the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Saydnaya Prison, Al Tatari and three other pilots were arrested in 1980 for refusing to conduct airstrikes in the Hama Governorate.

The squadron commander and another pilot sought refuge in Jordan, while Al-Tatari and a colleague returned to their airbase in Aleppo without completing the planned airstrikes. Although Al-Tatari was accused of insubordination, the court eventually cleared him of the charges, citing that, as a subordinate officer, he had complied with his commander's instructions to cancel the mission.

Despite the acquittal, the court ruled to remove him from military service. When he returned to Syria after he was acquitted and his asylum request was rejected in Egypt, he was promptly detained anyway at Damascus Airport on November 24, 1981.

Hidden in jail for years

Al-Tatari was brutally tortured in General Intelligence Prison.

Then, in Mezzeh Prison, he was held without being charged with any crime. In 1982, he was brought before an exceptional military court for a few minutes, without any prior notice, public announcement, or informing him directly. Later that year, Al-Tatari was transferred to the notorious Tadmor Desert Prison, where he remained for 21 years.

After 2001, he was transferred to Saydnaya Prison, to spend 10 years there, which were the most difficult in the prison's history, especially in 2008 when the prisoners rebelled and were faced with the utmost brutality.

Al-Tatari's story remained largely unknown to the wider world for many years, until 2005 when he had his first opportunity to see his only son, Wael. In 2011, in a stand against the conditions of his confinement, he refused to wear the prison garb mandated by Adra prison authorities, where he was prevented from seeing his relatives and friends, and lived under terrible humanitarian conditions, like the rest of the detainees who ended up in the prisons of the Assad regime.

Release and honor

The imam of the Mohammed Al-Hamed Mosque in Hama, honored Ragheed Al-Tatari, presenting him with a golden sword in the name of the people of Hama, a symbol of bravery and defiance. Photo via @Asmaa59475027

The Syrian opposition forces released tens of thousands of detainees from Syrian prisons after the overthrow of the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad. After 43 years, Al-Tatari saw the light of day and left prison for the first time, after his hair had turned gray and his face wrinkled, painting a picture of a life wasted behind bars.

Human rights organizations consider Al-Tatari to be the longest serving political detainee in Syria. He is referred to as the “dean of Syrian prisoners,” by many. Today, Al-Tatari returned to the streets of Syria after a long and bitter ordeal, and pictures on X (formerly Twitter) showed the former pilot smiling after gaining his freedom.

In a powerful act of solidarity and respect, the people of Hama, still haunted by the memories of the 1982 massacre honored him. They gifted him a golden sword, a symbol of bravery and defiance, recognizing his integrity and courage in the face of one of the most oppressive regimes in modern history.

 

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Uma publicação compartilhada por عربي بوست (@arabicpost)

The people of Hama province in Syria honored pilot Ragheed al-Tatari after he spent 43 years in the prisons of the Assad regime, due to his refusal to carry out orders to bomb civilians in the city in the eighties during the rule of Hafez al-Assad.

Al-Tatari was arrested when he was a major at the age of 27, and was released at the age of 70 from the central prison in Tartous, after opposition factions took control of cities that were under the control of the regime and released detainees in the prisons there, with Bashar al-Assad fleeing to Russia.

For the people of Hama, Al-Tatari’s defiance against Assad’s orders served as an act of moral clarity in a time when survival often meant complicity. The fact that the people of Hama chose to honor Al-Tatari decades later, despite the regime’s attempts to erase such stories of resistance, speaks volumes about the enduring legacy of integrity. It is also a testament to how memory and justice can outlast even the most repressive regimes.