involvement of the regime. we had initiated a project with the aim of giving the interested audience in syria journalists and lawyers an insight into the large number of un conventions syria had signed regarding refugees human rights and so on who will be inflicting it on. syrian human rights lawyer and while boonie paid a high price for this idea. and i can. assure you the e.u. put me in charge of this institution because i was very well known in syria as a human rights lawyer and i had defended political prisoners under very difficult conditions since the one nine hundred ninety s. . a large office was rented on behalf of the e.u. . they got computers and paid for all the equipment. i think. twenty seven e.u. representatives came to the opening including twelve ambassadors. enough and in fact when in retrospect you ask yourself what the e.u. is thinking they opened a human rights center with me at the helm without really securing that politically . those who know how the state works would have done that differently it didn't work that's probably why they had the courage to open such a center but i was at the opening people gave pretty little speeches and after a week the center was closed again. the secret service men attacked me outside of my house and took me with them. and. they took me to an interrogation center but i wasn't tortured but they beat me. they blindfolded me so i couldn't see who was beating me so i wouldn't recognize them on the second day i was taken to prison and then i was put on trial. i was summoned to the foreign office and i was accused of interfering in syrian internal affairs. or the forty's i was to hold the project immediately which i did i narrowly avoided becoming a person non grata was. called. my was sentenced to five years. i was accused of conspiracy and founding an international organization that. the european parliament demanded the syrian authorities immediately release and while boonie and other political activists and ensure they were not abused one in jail. need however to serve all five years of his sentence he was beaten abused and even threatened with death. the e.u. then pursued other avenues and policies it centered on the association agreement with syria to tie the country to europe economically because they needed bashar al assad in the region. india your own. european politicians started visiting damascus again the visitors might have felt like many other diplomats they knew about the human rights violations but they didn't see them the germans signed a financial agreement with syria in two thousand and eight alone twenty six million euros were great for development projects. former chancellor gerhard schroeder travelled to economic tour he accepted an honorary doctorate and met the president . after work the president took photos for the family album a regular couple with three children the assads from next door. he's not a president and home at home he is a husband and he's a friend and he's a father. and he doesn't allow the official or his official responsibilities to intrude into that time ever so his hands on his support of his a lot of fun. and especially with the kids i love having him around it's really important to realize that these people are human sometimes people tell me that this photo is too nice because you see him as a human being and he's a monster and i say no he's not a monster he's a human being acting like a monster and it's very important that we keep this in mind because. it would make them comfortable it would make them go to court one day. in two thousand and nine a french television team accompanied the assads on their way to the opera in damascus. it is very secure but you. can open the window but it. does notice that you cannot be secured through bodyguards you can secure through been through having secured the fighting. of course there was a risk but i don't like it better that's what make me more confident more open with the people more contact with them in my work. when jumana as father riyad saif was released from jail after five years he did not remain silent he continued his criticism of the regime. and again he was persecuted. jambi other. did he who i remember a night in february it was valentine's day and we had guests be more. of a few shitty little officials they came to our house at three in the morning. but also we call these people back because they only come at night. men were huge very muscular i mean they had weapons and wore masks. they didn't just come to us they came to my brother my cousins everyone in our family has been on me but even on me they said they were looking for my father they dragged everyone out of their homes out into the cold and pajamas. they took us the worst thing was the children witnessed how these masked men with their guns came to our house and threatened us all to go on her. to call way. we got a message if you talk about these arrests in any way expect punishment might be. a was the. it was a terrible time for my family and if she and mike phelan can determine when they did everything they could to destroy us and break my father and. it's the last photo i did of them a few months later it was. the revolution things changed in syria. in march two thousand and eleven the arab spring reached syria the people started loudly voicing their anger and their longing for freedom the regime. reacted with what it did best violence arrests torture and. when the president addressed parliament weeks later the images eerily resembled those of his first speech eleven as earlier. when the hope of so many rested on him now he was a man spouting empty words he spoke of a conspiracy of foreign enemies to the applause from his hired at myra's. that you believe you have. the rebellion turned into a war everyone who turned against assad was labeled a terrorist by the regime the president had syrian towns and cities and the syrian people his people bombed. the united nations estimate that more than four hundred thousand people have died in this war including many children one time my daughter asked my husband what do you do we know you go to the office we see on t.v. sometimes but what is it you do and he said i try to help people now if you want to ask what does your father do she says and she says to everybody my father helps people in syria. almost half of all syrians men women and children had to flee their homes because of the war. nobody really knows how many are still in syria's prisons how many have disappeared how many have been tortured to death i witness is speak of tens of thousands. apart from a few appearances in public as ma assad has long disappeared from the real world she's become an actress in the videos and photographs issued by the syrian regime a first lady of propaganda. the minute asimo standing by her man you know she is all in she believes and what the syrian regime is doing and believes and those. projection that they are saving syria that they are saving a way of life and so it appears that you know she will stay you know in damascus and stay with them to the end one way or another jumana saif family now lives in berlin and is safe her father survived the many years in syrian prisons he continues to fight for a free syria from exile a syria without a son and i'm a player peace with the assad and his family is completely unimaginable to me he and his people are responsible for terrible crimes committed to people who just wanted their freedom. yes situation now is that assad will say one day the war is over i've won and the west has to think about whether it is really prepared to rehabilitate assad i think the image of this presidential couple will help the west to do that because assad is the way he is and he appears with his wife as he does the chances great that politicians will say great have you refugees back and the millions as well so assad can rebuild his country. and then we hope the syrians will come to terms with that but as long as he's in power most syrians won't return because their lives are at risk. i'd love to know what really happens. when there are just two of them. who they believe the lawyer or the. know. who they are on the brink and then. they make a commitment they find solutions. they inspire. africa on the news. stories about people making a difference shaping their nation. and their continent africa on the move stories about motivational change makers taking their destinies into their own hands d.-w. is a new multimedia series for africa. d w dot com africa on the move. and in this day w. that i may speak your language they don't make up. for content in dari pashto and order prospects for returning our web special to the next refugee journeys of life in germany and the prospects for those returning home. join the discussion on t w dot com and on facebook. prospects for returning news d.-w. maybe for mines. camera footage of the unfolding tragedy investigators say the gunman was methodical and meticulous our correspondent is in las vegas with the latest also coming up spain's king philippe slams capullo news independence bit as unlawful that says hundreds of thousands rally in the streets to protest police violence against voters we'll get reaction from barcelona. british prime minister theresa may prepares to face her critics at the u.k.'s conservative party conference she's facing extreme pressure as the european union plays hardball overbright to get the view from europe and the u.k. . plus the struggles to protect europe's population money makers in romania want compensation over an insecticide that wiped out their whole lives now the e.u. is considering tougher laws to help the threatened insect.