Hamza Al Khatib was a 13-year-old Syrian boy, who, according to Al Jazeera,  was, “Arrested during a protest in Saida, 10km east of Daraa, on April 29, Hamza’s body was returned to his family on Tuesday 24th May, horribly mutilated. The child had spent nearly a month in the custody of Syrian security, and when they finally returned his corpse it bore the scars of brutal torture: Lacerations, bruises and burns to his feet, elbows, face and knees, consistent with the use of electric shock devices and of being whipped with cable, both techniques of torture documented by Human Rights Watch as being used in Syrian prisons during the bloody three-month crackdown on protestors. Hamza didn’t burn for politics, said his cousin, ‘but everybody seemed to be going to the protest, so he went along as well,’ walking with friends and family the 12 km along the road from his hometown of Jeezah north-west to Saida. The firing began almost as soon as the villagers reached the edge of Saida, said the cousin. ‘People were killed and wounded, some were arrested. It was chaotic; we didn’t know at that point what had happened to Hamza. He just disappeared.’ A second source from the region, an activist, also spoke to Al Jazeera, confirming that Hamza had been among 51 protesters detained on April 29, he said, by Airforce Intelligence. ‘They were all alive when they went into prison, but we received 13 bodies back this week and all had been tortured. The Airforce Intelligence are notorious for torture, they’re barbarians. We’re expecting another dozen bodies back in the coming days.’”