HASSAN AKKAD — BIOGRAPHY
Free Hassan Akkad Campaign · Updated June 2026

Hassan Akkad is a Syrian-British filmmaker, author, and activist. Born in Riyadh
and raised in Damascus, he was working as an English teacher and photographer when
he joined the 2011 protests against Bashar al-Assad. He was arrested and beaten
twice; after his first detention, Assad summoned him to the palace.

In September 2015 he fled Syria, reaching the UK after an 87-day journey via Turkey
and the Calais "Jungle." The footage he filmed along the way became part of the
BBC's "Exodus: Our Journey to Europe," which won a BAFTA in 2017. He was granted
asylum and became a British citizen in 2022.

During the COVID-19 pandemic he volunteered as a cleaner on a COVID ward at Whipps
Cross Hospital in London. His video message to Prime Minister Boris Johnson helped
force a government U-turn protecting migrant care workers' families. He wrote the
memoir "Hope Not Fear" and co-directed the Netflix documentary "Convergence:
Courage in a Crisis."

After the fall of the Assad regime, Hassan returned to Damascus in 2025. In 2026 he
launched the popular "Give us the money you owe" (هاتوا الفلوس) campaign, pressing
public figures who pledged reconstruction donations to the Syrian Development Fund
but never paid.

In June 2026, after naming figures including businessman Mohammad Hamsho and media
personality Moussa al-Omar, he was summoned to the Anti-Cybercrime Branch and the
Ministry of Information under an Assad-era cyber-crime law (Legislative Decree No. 17
of 2012, amended 2022), and asked to pause publishing. He briefly lost contact,
causing public alarm, before confirming he was safe. Then, on 17 June 2026, security
forces detained him from a restaurant in Malki, Damascus, under that law; as of writing,
no official statement has confirmed the charges against him or his whereabouts.

SOURCES
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Akkad
- The Guardian (2020): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/02/hassan-akkad-for-someone-from-syria-the-creeping-authoritarianism-is-vivid-in-britain
- Foreign Policy (June 2026): https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/06/08/syria-sharaa-assad-development-social-media-instagram-satire/
- Enab Baladi (June 2026): https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2026/06/hassan-akkad-faces-legal-battle-over-donation-campaign/

Contact: freehassanakkad@gmail.com