Prominent Syrian artist Talal Abu Dan has been arrested and his studio ransacked in the latest crackdown against opposition activists, a rights group said on Thursday.
"The painter and activist Talal Abu Dan was summoned by the security services in Aleppo (on Wednesday) and has not reappeared since," said Ammar Qorabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria.
He said in a statement that Abu Dan was transported to Damascus, where the authorities are holding a number of dissidents on national security charges for attending an opposition meeting in the Syrian capital last month.
At least 11 people, including former MP Riad Seif, have already been detained for attending a meeting of the National Council of the Damascus Declaration, which calls for radical democratic change in Syria.
"Abu Dan's studio in Aleppo was ransacked on January 21 and paintings and canvases were all destroyed," Qorabi said.
Abu Dan, 55, married with three children, is a former political prisoner who had spent over 10 years behind bars for belonging to a communist party banned in Syria.
Last month's meeting drew together 163 activists and established a National Council charged with implementing the Damascus Declaration, which has united communist, nationalist, liberal and Kurdish parties.
Syria responded with a wave of arrests which have drawn strong criticism from the United States.
"The Syrian regime cannot expect to be treated as a respected member of the international community while it engages in such systematic repression of its own citizens," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said on Wednesday.
He said the Syrian regime continues to hold more than 4,000 political prisoners.
US President George W. Bush has applauded the formation of the Damascus Declaration grouping, saying its members "reflect the desires of the majority of Syrian people to live in freedom, democracy, and peace."
AFP
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