Syrian Novelist and author The Shell (2007), Mustafa Khalifa spent over 12 years in the prisons of the Syrian regime for his political activities as a member of the leftist opposition to the regime of Hafez al-Assad.Syrian Novelist and author The Shell (2007), Mustafa Khalifa spent over 12 years in the prisons of the Syrian regime for his political activities as a member of the leftist opposition to the regime of Hafez al-Assad.