Amidst tight security, the ten detainees arrested after attending a meeting called for by the Damascus Declaration entered a court room and appeared before investigation judge Muhammad Subhi al-Sau'r.
They were Dr. Ahmad Ta'ma, Jabr al-Shufi, Akram al-Bunni, Dr. Fida' Horani, Ali al-Abdallah, Walid al-Bunni, Dr. Yasser al-Eiti, Muhammed Haji Darwish, Marwan al-Ush and Fayiz Sarah.
The attorney-general relied on Article 285 of the penal code to charge the ten detainees with "weakening the national spirit and awkening racism and sectarianism." The attorney-general also used Article 286 to charge them with "weakening national morale."
Articles 304 and 306 were invoked to accuse the ten detainees of "creating a group which aims to change the economic and social structure of the state and the basic condition of society with one of the following means:..."
It is important to note that Article 304 is the first article in chapter four of the penal code, which deals with crimes against the state. It is essentially about acts of a terrorist nature that aim to cause panic and are usually carried out using explosives, firearms, incendary devices, poisons and harmful biological materials.
The attorney-general then invoked Article 307 of the penal code to charge the ten detainees of stoking racism and sectarianism. Article 307 prohibits "carrying out or writing material the aim of which is to inflame sectarian or racist feelings or to provoke conflict between the sects and the rest of the nation."
Article 327 deals with secret groups and was invoked also by the prosecutor-general. The article says: "A group is secret if its aims are deemed illegal and if it conducts its business in total or partial secrecy. A group is also secret if it is proved that its aims are contrary to the law and it did not inform the authorities, after it had been told to do so, or if it offered false or incomplete information on, the following: Its by-laws, the names of its members, the job descriptions of its members, the subject of its meetings, the source of its funding and a break-down of its assests."
The ten detainees denied all charges and rejected statements which had been attributed to them in notes taken down by the security officers. They comfirmed that they had been subjected to torture and ill-treatment and defended the legitimacy of their aims and objectives which revolve around peaceful democratic change.
The questioning of the ten detainees occured in an uncomfortable environment given that:
1- Orders were given to the police not to allow defence lawyers to speak to their clients despite being their legal representatives. The police did not refrain from using force with the lawyers to dissuade them from speaking with their clients. This created an air of intellectual fear.
2- One of the lawyers was not allowed to meet his client in the cells despite having an official permit from the bar association. The officer on duty denied him access citing orders.
3- The son of Dr. Fida Horani was not allowed to even look at his mother while she was being transferred to prison. He was forcibly pushed away and verbally abused together with an accompanying lawyer and relatives. They were forcibly ejected outside the walls of the court.
4- The judge did not allow the lawyers to obtain a copy of the paper listing the charges levelled against their clients. Thus the lawyers and the clients were in the dark as to many aspects of the case.
5- The detainess arrived in court extremely hungry. The intercession of the judge was needed for sandwiches to be passed to them even though offical instruction were not to allow food to be passed to them.
We, the undersigned organizations and centres, express fear at the possibility of greater security procedures being imposed on the detainees in prison like what we have seen in cases relating to other prisoners of conscience. We demand that these detainees be treated in the same manner as other prisoners and that the prison law be applied to them fairly.
We are hopeful that the Syrian judiciary will not be a tool for tyranny or political repression. We demand that the detainess be released immediately and unconditionally given that they have not committed any crime punishable by law. They had exercised their constitutional and human rights as specified in international agreements signed by Syria.
Syrian Organization for Human Rights
Kurdish Committee for Human Rights
Kurdish Organization for Human and General Rights
Syrian Centre for Legal Research and Studies
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