Ragheed Al-Tatari’s name has become a symbol of moral courage in the context of the Syrian regime’s brutal history. A former pilot in the Syrian Air Force, Al-Tatari made a decision that cost him 43 years of his life in prison: he refused to bomb the city of Hama in 1982. At the time, Hama was rising against the authoritarian regime of Hafez al-Assad, and the regime’s response was catastrophic.Refusing military ordersSyrian President Hafez al-Assad alongside his brother Rifaat al-Assad at a military ceremony in Damascus, 1984. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.Under Assad’s orders, the Syrian military launched a full-scale assault on the city, led by his brother Rifaat Assad, one of the most brutal crackdowns in the history of modern Syria. Thousands of civilians were killed during the massacre. Patrick Seale, reporting in The Globe and Mail, described the operation as a “two-week orgy of killing, destruction and looting” which destroyed the city and killed a minimum of 25,000 inhabitants. Al-Tatari, however, could not bring himself to carry out the orders. Faced with the horrifying prospect of bombing civilians, he chose to defy his superiors and instead refused to follow through with the mission. For his act of defiance, the Syrian regime sentenced him to an extraordinary 43 years in prison. His act of conscience would not only change his life but also resonate deeply within the collective memory of Syrians, especially in Hama.According to the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Saydnaya Prison, Al Tatari and three other pilots were arrested in 1980 for refusing to conduct airstrikes in the Hama Governorate.The squadron commander and another pilot sought refuge in Jordan, while Al-Tatari and a colleague returned to their airbase in Aleppo without completing the planned airstrikes. Although Al-Tatari was accused of insubordination, the court eventually cleared him of the charges, citing that, as a subordinate officer, he had complied with his commander’s instructions to cancel the mission.Despite the acquittal, the court ruled to remove him from military service. When he returned to Syria after he was acquitted and his asylum request was rejected in Egypt, he was promptly detained anyway at Damascus Airport on November 24, 1981.Hidden in jail for yearsAl-Tatari was brutally tortured in General Intelligence Prison.Then, in Mezzeh Prison, he was held without being charged with any crime. In 1982, he was brought before an exceptional military court for a few minutes, without any prior notice, public announcement, or informing him directly. Later that year, Al-Tatari was transferred to the notorious Tadmor Desert Prison, where he remained for 21 years.After 2001, he was transferred to Saydnaya Prison, to spend 10 years there, which were the most difficult in the prison’s history, especially in 2008 when the prisoners rebelled and were faced with the utmost brutality.Al-Tatari’s story remained largely unknown to the