1. Ibrahim Hamidi is a Syrian journalist who is a senior diplomatic editor for the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat, and who contributes to severalinternational media outlets and think tanks.
11 Facts About Ibrahim Hamidi
1. 2.
Ibrahim Hamidi is a Research Fellow and co-founder of the Syrian Studies Center at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
3.
Ibrahim Hamidi is a co-founder of the Arab Investigative Journalism Program.
4.
In 1986, Ibrahim Hamidi was able to move to Damascus to study journalism at Damascus University through a government stipend.
5.
Ibrahim Hamidi's English professor at the time, Abdullah Dardari, was a correspondent for the London-based Arab daily al-Hayat.
6.
Dardari, who later became Deputy Prime Minister of Syria in 2005, helped Ibrahim Hamidi find work as a secretary at his al-Hayat bureau in Damascus.
7.
Ibrahim Hamidi replaced Dardari as al-Hayat correspondent when the latter left to work for the United Nations Development Programme.
8.
Ibrahim Hamidi delved into the Kurdish issue, interviewing Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
9.
Ibrahim Hamidi conducted interviews with high-profile Palestinian leaders including Fathi Shaqaqi, head of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine who was assassinated in Malta days after his interview with al-Hayat, his successor Ramadan Shalah, and Khaled Mashal, head of the political bureau of Hamas.
10.
Ibrahim Hamidi went on to cover the death of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and the subsequent inauguration of his son Bashar al-Assad as president.
11.
Ibrahim Hamidi remained in solitary confinement until 25 May 2003 and was later acquitted in court in 2005.