In reports that began emerging at the end of last month, sources are now confirming that the renowned Syrian cartoonist Akram Raslan died in detention at the hands of Syrian police, allegedly due to torture-inflicted wounds. After Raslan began posting cartoons critical of Assad’s regime on Facebook, security forces working under Assad quietly captured him in October 2012 in the Syrian city of Hama.

Reports of his death had started circulating as early as 2013, though they remained unconfirmed for years in part because Raslan and other political prisoners are “usually sent to undisclosed locations and cut off entirely from the rest of the world,” according to Al Bawaba, which noted: “Most people had a trouble believing he was dead. No one knew where he’d been taken, what his charge was or seen him go to trial. The mounting questions bred as much pain as they did hope he still might be alive.”

Slate.fr and the Gulf Center for Human Rights have published more on the story in French and Arabic, respectively.