{"id":7401,"date":"2026-06-21T16:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T16:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/21\/syria-frees-activist-hassan-akkad-days-after-he-was-detained\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T16:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T16:36:15","slug":"syria-frees-activist-hassan-akkad-days-after-he-was-detained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/21\/syria-frees-activist-hassan-akkad-days-after-he-was-detained\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria frees activist Hassan Akkad days after he was detained"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>His release comes after journalist Mousa al-Omar dropped a complaint over online criticism.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>British Syrian activist\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2020\/5\/20\/the-syrian-refugee-on-the-uks-coronavirus-front-lines\">Hassan Akkad<\/a> has been released from a prison in Damascus after four days detention for alleged criticism of public figures.<\/p>\n<p>Akkad was taken into custody from a cafe in the al-Maliki neighbourhood of Damascus on Wednesday at about 9:45pm local time (18:45 GMT), a statement by his organisation <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/19\/syrian-activist-hassan-akkad-detained-in-damascus\">said<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/19\/syrian-activist-hassan-akkad-detained-in-damascus\">Syrian activist Hassan Akkad detained in Damascus<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/studio-b-unscripted\/2021\/4\/18\/food-photography-and-social-justice-asma-khan-and-hassan-akkad\">Food, photography and social justice \u2013 Asma Khan and Hassan Akkad<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/studio-b-unscripted\/2021\/4\/11\/rewriting-stories-of-migration-asma-khan-and-hassan-akkad\">Rewriting stories of migration \u2013 Asma Khan and Hassan Akkad<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2020\/5\/20\/the-syrian-refugee-on-the-uks-coronavirus-front-lines\">The Syrian refugee on the UK\u2019s coronavirus front lines<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Akkad is the founder of the \u201cGive Us the Money That You Owe!\u201d campaign, which tracks large financial commitments made by public figures during a donation drive to fund Syria\u2019s reconstruction.<\/p>\n<p>His detention followed a legal complaint filed by Syrian journalist and presenter Mousa al-Omar in relation to \u201cHassan\u2019s social media activities and public comments\u201d after Akkad criticised al-Omar for allegedly failing to deliver on his financial pledges during the donations campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Public Prosecutor Judge Hossam Khattab confirmed last week that Akkad had been detained due to warrants issued against him for failing to present himself to the Cybercrime Control Division in relation to al-Omar\u2019s complaint. Khattab also said other plaintiffs had filed cases against Akkad for slander and defamation.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4685455\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4685455\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PHOTO-2026-06-21-18-55-43-1782057625.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C442&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"British Syrian activist Hassan Akkad embraces a supporter after his release from detention, in an image provided by his \"Give Us the Money That You Owe!\" campaign [Handout\/Al Jazeera]\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4685455\">British Syrian activist Hassan Akkad embraces a supporter after his release from detention, in an image provided by his \u201cGive Us the Money That You Owe!\u201d campaign [Handout\/Al Jazeera]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The activist\u2019s release on Sunday came after al-Omar told Al Jazeera that he had instructed his lawyer to withdraw the complaint against Akkad, and said that everything pledged to the campaign had been paid.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, al-Omar again posted on X that he had withdrawn the complaint against Akkad.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy legal representative dropped the right and the lawsuit against my brother Hassan this morning and pardoned him for the sake of Almighty God \u2026 I was saddened by what he brought upon himself, and I wish him success in his social media activities and I will always be a supporter of him,\u201d he wrote in Arabic.<\/p>\n<p>Akkad, who is also a filmmaker, was imprisoned twice by President Bashar al-Assad\u2019s regime for documenting anti-government protests in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>After fleeing Syria, he stayed in the Middle East before making an 87-day journey across Europe to reach the UK in September 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Video of his gruelling trip was included in the documentary series, Exodus: Our Journey to Europe, which went on to win a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>His release comes after journalist Mousa al-Omar dropped a complaint over online criticism. British Syrian activist\u00a0Hassan Akkad has been released from a prison in Damascus after four days detention for alleged criticism of public figures. Akkad was taken into custody from a cafe in the al-Maliki neighbourhood of Damascus on Wednesday at about 9:45pm local &#8230; <a title=\"Syria frees activist Hassan Akkad days after he was detained\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/21\/syria-frees-activist-hassan-akkad-days-after-he-was-detained\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Syria frees activist Hassan Akkad days after he was detained\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}