Bassel Khartabil Safadi, of Syrian-Palestinian origin, is a software engineer, open-source developer and human rights defender who was arbitrarily detained on 15 March 2012 by Syrian military intelligence in Damascus. He had co-founded Aiki Lab, served as Chief Technology Officer of Al-Aous Publishing and Research Institution, and contributed to Creative Commons Syria, Mozilla Firefox, Wikipedia and Openclipart (and was instrumental as well in promoting open internet access and digital culture in Syria). After prolonged secret detention and transfers, spending time in Adra Prison, undergoing interrogation by a military field court, and suffering torture and ill-treatment, he was moved to an unknown location on 03 October 2015 and then extrajudicially executed shortly thereafter. His execution in October 2015 was confirmed in August 2017 by his wife, Noura Ghazi Safadi. His death was widely condemned and calls were made for the disclosure of the circumstances surrounding his killing and the release of information.