Both men were arrested in May 2006, after signing the Damascus-Beirut Declaration, a petition signed by more than 300 intellectuals and human rights defenders from Syria and Lebanon, calling for the improvement of the relationships between both countries.
Our organisations were also informed of the condemnation without standing trial, on the same date, of MM. Suleiman Al-Shamar, Leading member of the Democratic National Community and Khalil Hussein, President of the Public Relations Office at the Kurd Future Trend, to ten years in prison for "weakening the national ethic" and "conspiring with a foreign country".
Our organisations recall that this decision follows the condemnation on 24 April 2007 of Mr. Anwar Al-Bunni, a Syrian lawyer, the Head of the Damascus Centre for Legal Studies and the President of the Committees for the Defence of Political Prisoners, to five years in prison and a bail of 100 000 Syrian pounds, under the charges of « publication of false information ».
In view of these elements, our organisations believe these new convictions represent a further step in the daily repression led by the authorities against human rights defenders and opponents to shut down their freedom of expression.
As a consequence, FIDH and OMCT urge the Syrian authorities to guarantee their rights of defence in case they would decide to appeal his sentence, and ask their release as well as the release of all prisoners of opinion sentenced and detained in Syria and among them.
FIDH and OMCT also urge the Syrian authorities to ensure the physical and psychological integrity of these prisoners of opinion and recall Syria’s obligations under international human rights conventions.
For further information, please contact:
FIDH : Gael Grilhot, + 331 43 55 25 18
OMCT : Delphine Reculeau, + 41 22 809 49 39