On April, 14 2009, the Supreme State Security Court (SSSC) in Damascus condemned Mohammed Habchi Rachou and Ibrahim Sheikhou Alouch to 7 years of imprisonnment, Mohammed Ibn Salih Mastou, Nouri Mostafa Hussein and Rachad Ibrahim to 6 years and Latifa Morad and Zaynab Horso Mohamad to 5 years. All of them have been sentenced for their presumed activities as members of a Kurdish political party, the Kurdish Democratic Union in Syria and for conspiring to annex a part of the Syrian territory to a foreign state (article 257 of the Syrian Penal code). The ruling Baath Party is the sole party allowed to operate in Syria, all other parties are classified as illegal organizations and their supporters are indictable under article 288 of the Syrian Penal Code.
FIDH further express concern that the defendants are rarely given the opportunity to consult with their lawyers. The detainees are not allowed to meet them in private and lawyers are not allowed to visit them in prison. Such a situation puts the detainees at risk of torture and ill-treatment which are widespread in Syria’s detention and interrogation centres.
The same day, a Judge of the Individual Military Court in Damascus sentenced Mr Fouad Aliko, Secretary of the Kurdish Yekiti Party in Syria, and Mr. Hassan Saleh, Member of the Political Committee and the previous Secretary of the Kurdish Yekiti Party in Syria, for belonging to an illegal organisation and incitement to riot. Twenty-two other persons were condemned to prison sentences of more than one year for participating in a protest in Qamishli, denouncing the Turkish military operation at the Iraqi-Turkish border on November 2, 2007. Clashes erupted between demonstrators and security forces which resulted in the death of a demonstrator.
Numerous Kurdish political activists have been tried before the SSSC and military courts over the past months, including after protesting in favor of expanding the rights awarded by the Syrian government to the Kurdish population.
FIDH considers that most of the convictions of political activists in Syria under Article 288 contradict the right to freedom of association. In all its jurisprudence, the Human Rights Committee stresses that in accordance with ICCPR, art. 22(2) « the existence of any reasonnable and objective justification for limiting the freedom of association is not sufficient. The State Party must further demonstrate that the prohibition of the association and the criminal prosecution of individuals for membership in such organisations are in fact necessary to avert a real, and not hypothetical danger to the national security or democratic order and that less intrusive measures would be sufficient to achieve this purpose.»
FIDH furthermore reiterates that the rules of procedure of Syrian State Security Court ( SSSC) which is an exceptional court created by decree 47 of 1968 pursuant to the state of emergency do not conform with internationally recognised standards of a fair trial by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law. It should be noted in particular that among court members are military officers and that the Court’s decisions cannot be appealed.
FIDH calls upon the Syrian authorities to ensure that all detainees including political detainees, be brought before a civil, competent and impartial tribunal, and that their procedural rights be guaranteed at all times, including the right of defense and the right of appeal; to ensure that all charges against people sentenced for their peaceful exercise of freedom of association be dropped; to bring Syria’s legislation in line with international standards on freedom of association and on fair trial.