Riad al-Turk, a veteran Syrian opposition leader known as the “Mandela of Syria” after spending nearly two decades in prison for speaking out against his country’s dictatorial regimes, died on Jan. 1 in Eaubonne, a northern suburb of Paris. Mr. Turk’s death, at a hospital, was confirmed by his daughter Khuzama Turk in an interview. Mr. Turk’s life was a dark mirror of his country’s torments, and his improbable survival was testimony to his will to endure. He was imprisoned four times, tortured repeatedly and spent nearly 18 years in solitary confinement, mostly in an underground cell with no windows. “We can say that it was about my height — it was the size of a small elevator,” he said in one of his last interviews.

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Persons: Riad, Mandela, Turk’s, Khuzama Turk, Turk, ”, Robin Wright Locations: Syrian, Syria, Eaubonne, Paris, France, Damascus