From June 11, 2012 in the evening to June 12 in the afternoon, Mr. Rihawi received 5-6 threatening phone calls from unidentified individuals who accused him of being an agent, a spy for the West and a traitor of the nation. The callers told him: “how dare you accuse Bashar of being a criminal? You are the criminal”. The caller also used another Syrian expression which means that he “won’t live more than "them"” (“them” referring to the supporters of Syrian President Bashar El-Assad). It has not yet been possible to identify the origin of the calls.
These threats occurred after Mr. Rihawi, who is currently in exile in Cairo, Egypt, appeared on Al Jazeera Arabic on June 11, to speak about a communication that was sent to the International Criminal Court (ICC) by his own organisation as well as by another Syrian organisation, The Hague Center for the Persecution of Criminals against Humanity in Syria, on the continued widespread and systematic human rights violations that have taken place in Syria.
The Observatory expresses its deepest concerns about the death threats received by Mr. Rihawi, which are directly related to his human rights activities. It calls on both the Syrian and Egyptian authorities to comply with Article 1 of the 1998 United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which states that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to (…) strive for the protection and realisation of human rights (...) at the national and international levels”, as well as Article 12.2 of the same Declaration, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action (...)”.
The Observatory further calls on the Egyptian authorities to carry out an immediate, thorough, effective and impartial investigation into the above mentioned acts, the result of which must be made public, in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before a civil competent and impartial tribunal and apply to them the penal sanctions provided by the law.
For further information, please contact:
· FIDH: Arthur Manet : + 33 1 43 55 25 18