From the 2011 protests to his 17 June 2026 detention and release on 21 June. Every entry is dated and sourced. Where sources conflict, both are noted. Last updated: 24 June 2026.
As protests against Bashar al-Assad spread, Hassan โ then an English teacher and photographer โ joined and filmed the demonstrations. He was arrested and beaten twice. After his first detention, Assad summoned him to the palace, where Hassan says he spoke about the regime's systematic torture.
In September 2015 Hassan fled Syria. His journey to Britain โ via Turkey and the Calais "Jungle" โ took 87 days. He filmed it on his phone along the way and claimed asylum on arrival.
Hassan's footage became part of the BBC documentary Exodus: Our Journey to Europe, which won the BAFTA for Best Factual Series in 2017. He used the platform to highlight how many refugees had died trying to reach Europe.
During the pandemic Hassan volunteered as a cleaner on a COVID ward at Whipps Cross Hospital. His video message to Prime Minister Boris Johnson โ about excluding migrant care workers from a bereavement scheme โ helped force a government reversal.
Hassan published his memoir Hope Not Fear and co-directed the Netflix documentary Convergence: Courage in a Crisis. In September 2022 he became a British citizen.
Following the collapse of the Assad regime in late 2024, Hassan returned to Damascus in 2025 after more than a decade in exile. He began using his platform to document the country's reconstruction โ and the corruption around it.
Hassan launches a satirical popular campaign pressing wealthy donors who pledged money to the Syrian Development Fund for reconstruction but never paid. He names figures including businessman Mohammad Hamsho and media personality Moussa al-Omar. By his account, dozens of names and millions of dollars in pledges remain uncollected โ with the Aleppo appeal alone reported to have drawn pledges of more than $426 million.
The Ministry of Information says the summons relates to a defamation complaint by Moussa al-Omar โ not to Hassan's other posts โ and that it asked al-Omar to consider withdrawing the complaint, hoping for a solution acceptable to both sides.
Hassan is summoned to the Anti-Cybercrime Branch (Criminal Security) on 7 June and to the Ministry of Information on 8 June. He is asked to pause publishing pending a meeting. The legal basis is the cyber-crime law inherited from the Assad era (Legislative Decree No. 17 of 2012, amended 2022).
After Hassan lost contact following his visit to the Criminal Security branch, alarm spread online about his whereabouts. He then posted that he is fine, that he has a statement about "what happened over the last four days" that all Syrians should hear โ but that he cannot speak until he is safe.
Security forces detained Hassan from a restaurant in the Malki district of Damascus under the Assad-era cyber-crime law (Legislative Decree No. 17 of 2012, amended 2022). He was held for about five days and moved between several security branches during the investigation.
After about five days in detention, Hassan is released. Media figure Moussa al-Omar tells Al Jazeera he has instructed his lawyer to withdraw the complaint, and says the money pledged to the campaign has now been paid. Hassan later publishes an account of his detention and says he still faces separate complaints reportedly linked to businessman Mohammad Hamsho. The Assad-era cyber-crime law used against him remains in force.
Every entry on this timeline is drawn from a bylined news report, an official statement, or Hassan's own public posts. Where a claim cannot be confirmed, it is kept in the Reported, Not Yet Confirmed section on the homepage, not presented as fact. To submit a source or a correction, email freehassanakkad@gmail.com.