[calbear81]

I don't know Bassel but the fact that he's been detained secretly in Syria suggests that the government thinks he's involved somehow with he uprising/democracy movement.

I don't think signature campaigns will do any good since not even pressure from the US and Turkey has slowed down the bloodshed so do we really think they will care about a bunch of virtual signatures collected online?

There's a few more viable options that should be considered:

1) Leverage someone who has influence with the Syrian government to take up the cause. Given Bassel has been an open source contributor, maybe look at which tech companies are still contracted by the Syrian government and try to get them to lend a voice of support. Make sure to play up the positive PR that releasing Bassel will have on improving Syria's image.

2) Stop collecting signatures and start collecting money to work the back channels. Let's be honest here, corruption is rife (high corruption index on Transparency International study) and the situation pretty chaotic, if you really want to free Bassel, consider a pragmatic approach.

[GiraffeNecktie]

Or do what Amnesty International does, and send polite but urgent letters of concern to persons of authority and influence including ambassadors (UN, US etc) and to Basher Assad himself. People are likely to be better treated if the authorities know that they are the focus of international attention (conversely it totally sucks for the thousands of anonymous people being tortured today in Syrian jails).

[tomjen3]

Or cut the middle man and go directly to Amnesty. They might consider him for their letter campaign (they already have the lists of recipients and have been known to send so many letters that they can cover a jail cell).