Various organizations, including UNESCO and the World Association of Newspapers, endeavoured to secure Nayyouf's release from prison on humanitarian grounds due to his precarious mental and physical condition.[1][2] Syrian President Bashar al-Assad granted Nayyouf's release ten years after his initial imprisonment, on 6 May 2001 to coincide with the visit of Pope John Paul II to Syria.[9][6] Nayyouf was released into house arrest at first, but on 20 June was seized by security agents outside a clinic where he was receiving treatment.[10] International outcry ensued in response to the incident, which had occurred just as Nayyouf was planning to release information detailing Syrian human rights abuses, but the government denied involvement.[11] However, Nayyouf was granted a full release and his travel ban was lifted,[9][12] hours before President Bashar al-Assad was due to visit Paris.[13] Nayyouf moved to France and then the UK, as he applied for political asylum, while he sought medical treatment for the injuries he suffered from torture during his confinement, which left him partially paralysed.[6][8] In 2002, Nayyouf was granted political asylum in France.[14] According to Nayyouf's attorney, lawyers for the ruling Ba'ath Party accused Nayyouf of "attempting to change the constitution by illegal means, creating sectarian strife, and publishing reports harmful for the state", and ordered him to appear in Syria for an investigation in September 1992.[15] After his release, Nayyouf has continued to speak out against human rights violations in Syria, targeting torture, deaths in detention, and executions including the Tadmor Prison massacre on 27 June 1980, in which over 1,000 accused Islamists were executed at Palmyra prison.[15] He joined the Syrian Democratic Coalition to advocate for democratic reforms.[16]