"I still hoped that he would be released, but after three months passed, we received news.

"I was at home with friends when my sister arrived. Straight away I shouted “Has something happened to Ayham?” She said 'Yes.'"

Mariam was told that a young man who had been arrested with Ayham had been in touch with a family friend to say that they had both been tortured and that though he had survived, Ayham had died five days after entering the prison.

Mariam and her husband were distraught. But 20 days later, they received the news that Ayham was still alive. Mariam was determined to find out the truth. Was her son, who she had spent the past three weeks mourning, dead or alive?

Every two weeks for a year and a half Mariam went to the Palace of Justice to submit a request about the whereabouts of her son. Finally, an assistant began to feel sorry for her, and one day handed her a piece of paper with the words "Corpse 320" written on it. "I then looked at the dates," she says, "it appeared they had received the news of his death on November 21 2012, and he had died on November 11 2012.