Bashir Hodayfa was a human rights activist during the beginning of the Syrian Revolution in 2011. The Assad Regime arrested 22-year-old Bashir on November 16, 2012, at his home in Baniyas alongside his siblings 17-year-old Nour and 20-year-old Rashad, and their maternal cousin 17-year-old Omar Alshogre. After the capture, they were taken to the Military Intelligence of central Tartus, in which they were held, investigated, and tortured for ten days in solitary confinement. 

Bashir was held in Damascus’ Military Intelligence Directorate Branch 291, where he was then taken to Branch 215. Branch 215, known as the “branch of slow death,” is alleged to be responsible for torturing and killing a large number of detainees. While held in prison, Bashir experienced physical torture and underwent psychological torture, including the torture of his cousin to disturb him and confess to crimes he had not committed.

Despite the acute shortages of food, Bashir refused to eat after the death of his brother Rashad, until he became weaker and fell ill with tuberculosis in early 2014, and then passed away at the age of 23 on March 3, 2014. Inmates that survived and accompanied Bashir in Branch 215 recount that they washed his body, laid him out in the center of the room and prayed the Janazah funeral prayer for him. His cousin, Omar al-Shughari, who was in charge of numbering the corpses as seen in the Caesar files, placed the serial number of the deceased prisoners on Bashir’s forehead. 

Bashir spent 473 days detained in the Assad detention system. He was one of the over 17,000 people to die in custody across Syria between March 2011 and December 2015.