Tal al-Mallohi has been the centre of controversy, becoming a symbol of Syirans withering away inside prison cells for voicing their opinions.

Renowned for her blogging activity, Al-Mallohi was first called in for questioning by the Syrian security services in 2006 after having made a post requesting that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad hasten the democratization process. 

This post was in the direct aftermath of the "Damascus Spring," when Assad promised a more open and transparent government after having assumed the presidency by referendum upon the passing of his father in 2000. 

This promise, however, would be very short-lived as many Syrians started seeing the re-emergence of forced disappearances and detentions of political dissidents. 

The blog was home to Al-Mallohi's hopes and aspirations. It featured a picture of the Indian pacifist and activist Mahatma Gandhi with the lines "will always remain an example" written above it.

The blog also contained entries that supported the Palestinian cause. The last post was made on 6 September 2009, a poem entitled "Jerusalem, Our Lady of the cities."

Al-Mallohi would be called into the security services three more times in 2007, after which the family eventually decided to move to Egypt. 

When Al-Mallohi returned to Damascus later in 2008 for her end-of-year exams, she would be called in for questioning at least two more times. 

In 2009,  Al-Mallohi was called in for questioning in the Syrian embassy in Egypt before her ill-fated return to Syria. 

The family would later return to Syria in July 2009.

Al-Mallohi would receive a summons for questioning on 26 December that same year. 

The following day, 27 December, Tal al-Mallohi would unknowingly leave her home for the last time. 

Her parents have not seen her since. 

The following day, 28 December, members of the Syrian security services raided the family home, confiscating Al-Mallohi's laptop, her CDs, and a few other personal effects. 

A mother in pain after not seeing her daughter for months, Tal's mother, Ahed Mallohi, would try one last desperate attempt to lobby for her daughter's safe return. 

Ahed Mallohi would write a letter to the Syrian President, Bashar Al-Assad, in which she argued for her daughter's safe return. 

She stated that her daughter had no political affiliations and that, above all, she was a good girl who came from a good family. Her grandfather, Mohammad Dia al-Mallohi, had served Hafez Al-Assad faithfully as his Minister of State for the People's Assembly. 

After a reported promise from one of the security sources that her daughter would be released before Ramadan of that year, accounts of her daughter's torture started to surface. 

Syrian human rights activists refuted the reports of torture at the time. 

A man treads on a picture of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad as people enter his residence in Damascus' al-Maliki area. AFP

In September 2010, a Syrian news outlet closely tied to the government stated that Tal al-Mallohi was being held at the Duma Women's Prison and that she was charged with espionage and conspiring with a foreign state. 

Again, Ahed Mallohi would feel some hope that she would find her daughter and would go on to visit the prison many times. 

Each time, they would turn away the grieving mother, saying that her daughter was not there. 

In February 2011, a Syrian court ruled against her in a case of transpiring with a foreign nation. 

Officially, she was mandated to five years in prison; however, in practice, it turned out closer to 14. 

Al-Mallohi is only one of the scores of prisoners expected to be released after the collapse of the Syrian government. Although her story caught the attention of news outlets all over the world, there are so many like it.