The Honored No. (28) George Sabra

• He was born in the city of Qatana in the Rural Damascus Governorate in 1947.
• He studied elementary and middle school in its schools and graduated from the Teachers’ College in Damascus in 1967.
• He obtained a degree in Geography from the College of Arts and Humanities at Damascus University in 1971.
• He became an expert in educational systems and educational television techniques from Indiana University, USA, in 1978.
• He joined the Syrian Communist Party – Political Bureau in the 1970s and was among the comrades who took on the responsibility of leading party work after the security crackdown on the party and the large-scale arrests it faced in 1980.
• He was pursued during a security campaign against the party in 1984, and he went into hiding for three years, staying within the country.
• He was elected as a member of the party’s Central Committee in 1985.
• He was arrested in 1987 and sentenced to 8 years in prison by the Supreme State Security Court, serving his sentence in Sednaya Military Prison.
• He was released in 1995 after completing his sentence.
• In 2000, the party appointed him as its representative in the National Democratic Rally, and he became a member of the Central Leadership of the Rally.
• He was elected as a member of the Central Committee as a result of the sixth party congress in 2005.
• The Central Committee elected him as a member of its central secretariat.
• He participated in the founding activities of the Damascus Declaration for National Democratic Change in 2005 and was a member of its temporary secretariat.
• At the start of the Syrian revolution, he stood with the protesters.
• He was arrested on the morning of July 20, 2011, from his home in Qatana.
• He was released on September 19, 2011, after two months of detention, charged with “undermining state morale and inciting people to protest against the Bashar al-Assad regime.”
• He left Syria for France afterward.
• He joined the General Secretariat of the Syrian National Council.
• He was elected President of the Council on November 9, 2012, in an attempt to restructure the Council, just three days before the formation of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.
• He joined the Coalition after its founding as a representative of the National Council bloc.
• He was elected Vice President to the Coalition’s first president, Moaz al-Khatib.
• After al-Khatib’s resignation, Sabra assumed the interim presidency of the Coalition from April 22, 2013, until July 6, 2013.
• During his presidency, the Coalition expanded with the addition of new political blocs.
• On December 9, 2015, the National Coalition selected him to represent it in the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, which emerged from the Riyadh I Conference on December 10, 2015.
• On January 20, 2016, he became Deputy Head of the HNC delegation to the Geneva III negotiations.
• On November 21, 2017, Sabra announced his withdrawal from the High Negotiations Committee in protest of the members being excluded from preparations for the Riyadh II Conference.
• On April 25, 2018, he announced his resignation from the National Coalition along with other opposition members, in protest against what they described as the Coalition’s deviation from its revolutionary course and the imposition of a political solution in Syria following the Russian model.

At the Syrian Future Movement (SFM), in recognition of his rich and prominent history of struggle, political, and national contributions, and for standing with the people in their revolution against injustice and tyranny, and as a gesture of appreciation for Syria’s great figures, we are honored to present this week’s Syrian Future Movement (SFM) shield to George Sabra, a symbolic Syrian shield that carries our vision and inclusive national approach.