The National Coalition, a leading Syrian opposition body, elected Riad Seif, 70, as its new head on Saturday (May 6th), AFP reported.
Seif, who hails from Damascus, won 58 votes from the Istanbul-based National Coalition's 102 members, beating out the younger Khaled Khoja.
Seif served as a parliamentarian under both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez before him, and is one of the few lawmakers to have openly criticised the regime and its economic policies.
He spent a total of eight years in jail for organising weekly roundtables at his home on human rights issues in the 2000s and left Syria in June 2012.
When the National Coalition was formed later that year, Seif served as its vice president.
In his new role, he will replace current head Anas al-Abdeh, who was elected in March 2016.
