On 14 December 2025, the interim authority in Syria, “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham,” arrested the Syrian/American journalist and writer Iyad Sharabji, following his visit to the Criminal Security Department in the capital, Damascus.
Iyad Sharabji is a journalist and writer who holds Syrian and American citizenship. He is known for his public positions rejecting the massacres and violations committed by the authority’s forces in Suwayda Governorate and along the Syrian coast.
Sharabji’s arrest came in connection with a lawsuit filed against him after he published a video in which he expressed views about the young generation that grew up in Idlib Governorate during the years of the civil war, considering it a generation unfamiliar with the diversity of Syrian society and intolerant of opposition or criticism. According to sources, Sharabji was detained after his voluntary appearance before the Criminal Security Department in Damascus in connection with that lawsuit.
The lawsuit against Iyad Sharabji was filed by lawyer Rashid Abdul Jalil, a member of the People’s Assembly, who submitted a complaint to the Public Prosecutor in Damascus requesting the initiation of a public action and the prosecution of Sharabji on charges related to “inciting sectarian and ethnic tensions among Syrian components,” crimes of incitement, and the commission of acts described as organized. The complaint relied on Cybercrime Law No. 20 of 2022, as well as articles of the Syrian Penal Code. The lawsuit considered that what was attributed to Sharabji exceeded the “limits of freedom of expression,” constituted a “threat to national unity,” and caused “division among the sons of one people.”
Prior to his detention, Iyad Sharabji clarified in his responses to the campaign that targeted him that his statements had been misunderstood, stressing that his intention was not to insult the residents of Idlib, but rather to speak about a generation that grew up under exceptional conditions imposed by the war. He also indicated that he had received a phone call from an unknown person who threatened him with death, telling him literally: “Your grave will be in Damascus.”
Activists have held the Syrian authorities responsible for his personal safety, calling for the guarantee of due legal procedures in his case, especially since he voluntarily presented himself to the relevant authority and was accompanied by three volunteer lawyers defending him.
