The BBC is reporting that state security agents beat Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat for making cartoons like the following:
Ferzat’s cartoons used to be critical of the military leaders and elites who run many countries in the Arab region. The Syrian government, which was supposedly modernizing human rights, allowed Ferzat to start “The Lamplighter” in 2000. “The Lamplighter” was too popular for the Syrian elites and was thus shut down. When protests against Bashar Al-Asad’s government began earlier this year, Ferzat criticized Al-Asad through his cartoons (like the second example). So worried were the secret police that they pulled Ferzat from his car and bludgeoned him earlier today.
Ferzat’s website is currently down with a message saying that it received too much traffic. He is a master of the silent cartoon.
Thanks to Omar al-Issawi for the translations from the cartoons.
