The FIDH considers that they were arbitrarily arrested and detained and that this sentence sanctions only their legitimate exercise of freedom of expression.
Moreover, according to information received through the Committees for the Defence of Human Rights in Syria (CDF), its member organisation in Syria, they suffer restrictions on their right to visit and their health is deteriorating.
The FIDH urges the Syrian authorities to take all necessary measures to conform to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and in particular to article 15 which guarantees the right to freedom of expression.
The FIDH appeals for the immediate release of Aref Alilah and Wadih Al Bunni and of all political prisoners in Syria
The FIDH calls on Syrian authorities to lift the State of Emergency, allowing for restrictions on freedom of expression.
Finally, the FIDH urges the authorities to fully restore the rights of the political prisoners released over the past few years and compensate them.
Background information
Aref Alilah and Wadih Al Bunnni and 8 other Syrian political activists (Riad Turk, Kamal Al-Labwani, Habib Issa, Walid Albouni, Habib Saleh, Hassan Saadoun, Fawaz Tello) were arbitrarily arrested in August and September 2001. At least 8 of them were arrested without charges under the decree 06 of 1963 establishing a State of emergency and martial law in Syria. They have been or will be deferred before the Supreme State Security Court. Riad Turk, was sentenced on June 26 to two and a half years imprisonment on the charges of “attempting to change the Constitution by illegal means.
Mamoun Homsi and Riad Seif, two MPs, were tried under the penal code of 1994 and sentenced to 5 years in prison by the penal Court of Damascus on charges of “attempting to change the constitution by illegal means”. All of the prisoners are detained under extremely precarious conditions putting their physical and moral integrity in danger (isolation, bad treatment, restrictions of visit from family members and lawyers).