We, a family of seven, ask you to help us have our father and husband, Moheeb Al-Nawathy, released from detention in your country.
We fled Gaza and came to Norway in 2008, because our father was warned not to remain in Gaza under Hamas’ rule. He is a journalist and has reported extensively on human rights. He has written the book «Hamas from within», and he wanted to make a new edition of it. In December last year, he went to your country to work on the book. We, his wife and six children, expected him home within a week. Instead, there has been no sign of life from him for five months.
Moheeb often traveled to do his work. When he was away, we kept in touch. Mohanad (17) was the last of us kids who exchanged text messages with our father before he disappeared. At 15.30 on January 5th, going home from school, Mohanad sent a sms to his dad, to tell him about the upcoming match between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. Dad replied, asking «When?» Then it became quiet. We have not heard one word from him after January 5th.
We have done everything we can do here in Norway. We have reported him missing to the police, spoken with lawyers in Norway and Syria and with the Norwegian Embassy in Damascus. We have set up the web site «Help finding Moheeb Alnawathy» on Facebook. The Embassy spokesman says that Al-Nawathy has been taken into custody by Syrian authorities, but the authorities do not provide any more information. Where he is, what he is arrested for, or how his condition of health is, the Embassy does not know. They only know that he still is in Syria. A lawyer tells us that Moheeb is detained in Al-Mantiqa, which is controlled by one of the security forces in your country.
Dear people of Syria: We know that many of you in Syria take great risks by protesting against what is happening behind barred doors, and fighting for democracy and freedom. We know that you oppose detaining people for doing their job, like Moheeb. Could you do what you possibly can do, to press your government to release our father and husband Moheeb Al-Nawathy, whether they keep him in Al-Mantiqa or somewhere else? Numerous reports claim that conditions in Syrians prisons are inhuman. We know that our father is strong, but five months in prison is a terrible strain.
We are proud of our father. He believes that as a journalist, one must write the truth. This is also what he has taught his kids. He fled Gaza because he was not safe there as a journalist, and now he needs help!
We add a poem by daughter Maysara, 13 years of age:
To you, my dear father
To my greatest role model, to the person who lights up the way I should go
To the one who taught me to stand firmly in front of the rough ocean waves
To the person who gave me, and still provides, without borders
For those who proudly raised my head
To you I give my soul and I pray all my wishes and prayers to God shall fall to you
Dear father!
You are like a big mountain, stronger than everything else.
I stand firm, father, and I’m not alone in needing you.
I stand firm, and the end of sorrow is near.
After a while you come out again, as bird flocks return and sing.
And you will see the sun as it casts its golden rays through the tree branches
to give new life and new dreams to your heart.
Ibtisam, Majd, Mohanad, Mohanned, Maysara, Motaz and Mysra Al-Nawathy, Norway