Syrian Elector

Freed dissident hails net campaign

A tortured blogger in Syria says he owes his release to a pressure group which marks its first birthday this week
Observer World
David Smith

For two months he was imprisoned underground. His hands were cuffed behind his back. A leather strap was tied around his head to force his eyes shut. He was told to lie on his stomach and raise his legs in order to be beaten on his feet.

Ali Sayed al-Shihabi says he paid the price for expressing his political beliefs on the internet. Now released by the Syrian government, he paid tribute last week to Irrepressible.info, the joint campaign run by Amnesty International and The Observer which calls for an end to the persecution of bloggers by repressive regimes. 'This always made me stronger,' he said. 'I no longer felt that I had been a mere straw in the wind.'

Irrepressible.info has just turned one year old. Its impact will be debated on Wednesday when an event, 'Some People Think the Internet is a Bad Thing: The Struggle for Freedom of Expression in Cyberspace', is held at Amnesty's headquarters in Shoreditch, east London, and webcast around the world. Among the speakers will be Martha Lane Fox, the pioneering dotcom entrepreneur.

The campaign - launched 45 years after a powerful article in this newspaper led to the founding of Amnesty - recognises the internet as a new frontier in the struggle for human rights. It demands that governments stop censoring websites, blocking emails and imprisoning bloggers, and calls on major corporations such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! to stop colluding with them. Nearly 68,000 people have pledged their support so far, including Bob Geldof, Chris Martin and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

In Solidarity with the Young Prisoners of Conscience in Syria

Husam 'Ali Mulhim, 22: a student in the Faculty of Law at Damascus University

Tareq al-Ghorani, 21: an associate engineer

Maher Isber Ibrahim, 26: owner of a shop

Ayham Saqr, aged 30: works in a beauty salon

'Allam Fakhour, 29: a student in the sculpture section of the Art Faculty of Damascus University

'Omar 'Ali al-'Abdullah, 21: a second-year philosophy student at Damascus University

Diab Siriyeh, 21: a part-time student

These people have been detained for more than a year for participating in a peaceful democratic youth movement.

They are still being held in incommunicado detention, and have reportedly been subjected to torture. They are facing an unfair trial before the Supreme State Security Court (SSSC). Their next hearing session will be on 17 June, when the verdict is expected.

They face two charges: "taking action or making a written statement or speech which could endanger the State or harm its relationship with a foreign country, or expose it to the risk of hostile action" (Article 278 of the Syrian Penal Code, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment); and "broadcasting of false news" deemed to be harmful to the state (Article 287, which carries a maximum sentence of three years’ imprisonment

Amnesty International and other local and international human rights organizations consider them to be prisoners of conscience.

The Syrian, Arabic and international NGOs who signed this statement stand in solidarity with these seven youth and call for their immediate release because they are prisoners of conscience detained solely for exercising their right to peaceful expression of their beliefs and participation in public life.

Signatures:

Syria Civil Society Revival Committees

Damascus Center for Human Rights Studied

Arabic Committee for Human Rights- ACHR (France)

Damascus Center for Theoretical and Civil Rights Studies – DCTCRS (Sweden)

Al-Karama for Human Rights Defense (Geneva)

International Justice Organization.

Sada website for Rights and Freedoms

Kurdish Organizations in Syria for Human Rights – MAF

Kurdish Organization for Defense Human Rights and fundamental Freedoms in Syria –DAD

Iraqi Human Rights Organization – British & Ireland

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights – London

Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Researches

Syrian Committee for Human Rights – London

Al-Awn Egyptian Association for Human Rights

Arabic Institute for Support Civil Society and Human Rights (Egypt)

Kurdish Committee for Human Rights

Syrian Organization for Human Rights – Sawasia

Movement SOLID

Syrian Youth for Justice

American Islamic Congress

Susanne Kjaer, Project Manager, International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), Denmark

Al-Bahrain Youth Association for Human Rights

Al-Takamul Arabic Youth net

Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies (Egypt)

Syrian opposition slams presidential referendum

May 30, 2007 Wednesday 5:27 PM GMT

Syrian opposition figures criticised on Wednesday a referendum that returned President Bashar al-Assad to power for another seven years, denouncing there being only a single candidate and claiming corruption in the voting.

"We denounce the way in which the authorities managed the presidential election in ignoring the opposition's calls to change the system under which the candidate is chosen" and leaving citizens no free choice, a statement said.

The opposition had called for a boycott of the referendum.

The main signatories were members of the Democratic National Rally, a coalition of banned parties, the coalition of Kurdish parties, the human rights committee and several independent personalities.

Many of those signing the statement also signed the "Damascus Declaration" in 2005 calling on Syrians to work in a peaceful manner for "a radical change" and saying the creation of a "national democratic regime" was the way to achieve this change.

Bashar al-Assad, 41, was re-elected president in a no-contest referendum on Sunday in which officials said he received 97.62 percent of the votes.

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Agence France Presse -- English

Muslim Brotherhood member in Syria receives 12-year prison sentence

A Syrian man has received 12 years in prison after a state security court convicted him of belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, a human rights group said Monday.

The court first sentenced Fuad al-Shaghri to death on Sunday but later commuted his sentence to 12 years in prison, said Ammar Qurabi, the head of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria.

Also Sunday, the court sentenced Fares Naqour, 21, to 12 years in prison for crossing the Syrian border into the village of Majdel Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Qurabi said.

Naqour was arrested by Israeli authorities and handed over to the U.N. Disengagement Observer Forces (UNDOF) which later turned him over to Syrian border guards.

The court also sentenced Mohammad Ali al-Sheik and Ammar Abdullah to three years in prison each for inciting sectarian rifts, Qurabi said.

There was no comment on any of the sentences from the Syrian government, which rarely comments on the sentences, detention and prosecution of suspects wanted in political or security-related cases.

Qurabi called for the abrogation of both the 1963 emergency law and the State Security Court whose verdicts cannot be appealed. The court was set up in line with the emergency law and its cases often are heard by military personnel rather than civilian judges.

Since coming to power in 2000, Syrian President Bashar Assad has freed hundreds of political prisoners and passed laws aimed at liberalizing the state-controlled economy. But he has also clamped down on political activists, jailing pro-democracy advocates and cracking down on government critics, showing there are limits to the dissent his administration is willing to tolerate.

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From: Associated Press Worldstream _ May 21, 2007 Monday 3:30 PM GMT

Declaration of Candidacy

Declaration of Candidacy for the

Presidency of the Republic

Citizen Mohamad Ma’amoun El Homsi

O Syrian citizens:

Justice, freedom, and equality are human values consecrated by the three monotheistic religions and positive laws. Humanity has paid a high price for achieving them and suffered death for their sake. The codes of the democratic national stage in the contemporary history of Syria have stipulated them and referred to them with respect, until the Baathist party came to power and established a presidential regime close to absolute monarchy, burying what remained of freedom for the Syrian people by proposing the absolute dictatorial slogan “Asad for Forever”. As such, the state of emergency was the duplicate alternative for the Constitution and the laws.

O Syrian citizens:

Citizens compete in every country in the world for the presidency, except in Syria. Since the arrival of the Baath party to power, the “renovation” slogan was created, at the time of self-renewal of the presidency term, thus turning Syria into an absolute, inherited, royal family state. This has led, practically and definitely, to the suspension, even in form, of what remains of the sovereignty of law, equality between citizens, and alleged equal opportunities. In all the countries of the world, citizens are entitled to elect and be elected. They are also entitled to submit applications for positions in public administration departments notably, the position of the presidency, except in this totalitarian regime, the last stronghold of Stalinism. The regime of Asad and his North Korean counterpart are the only two Republican countries in the world where authority is inherited.

An open letter to Bashar

By Patrick Seale, Special to Gulf News

Dear Mr. President,

Friends of Syria - and I count myself among them - have been puzzled and saddened by the lengthy jail sentences passed on Syrian political prisoners, human rights activists and prisoners of conscience. These harsh punishments have attracted world-wide attention and do your country's reputation great harm. With the greatest respect, I urge you to review these cases and to grant an early amnesty to the prisoners.

Anwar Al Bunni is Syria 's leading defender of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. In March 2006, with funding and encouragement from the European Union, he created a Syrian human rights centre. Your security services closed it down almost immediately.

On May 17, 2006, Al Bunni was arrested and detained with common criminals at 'Adra prison near Damascus where, according to Amnesty International, he suffered beatings and degrading treatment.

I understand that he has written to you drawing your attention to the fact that some 6,000 prisoners in 'Adra are routinely subjected to beatings, insults and terror and prevented from leaving their cells, watching TV or listening to the radio.

He has asked you to investigate prison conditions. I very much hope you will respond positively to this request. I feel sure that you are aware that he is a prisoner of conscience detained solely for the expression of non-violent ideas.

On April 24, he was sentenced by the Damascus Criminal Court to five years' imprisonment on the charge of "spreading false information harmful to the state" (Article 286 of the Penal Code.)

Foreign diplomats present in court were disturbed by this harsh sentence and considered the trial unfair. Such political trials before Syria's criminal, military and state security courts have come under severe international criticism for the blatant influence of the security services on the proceedings.

I would suggest that prisoners such as Al Bunni, a respected lawyer, are more damaging to you inside prison than at liberty.

According to Amnesty International, his "crime" was to have raised the case of the death in custody of 26-year-old Mohammad Shaher Haysa, as a result of inhumane treatment, possibly amounting to torture.

Opposition leader blasts 'mafia' referendum in Syria

May 17, 2007

BEIRUT --  Paris-based Syrian opposition leader Abdel Halim Khaddam has lashed out at Syria's President Bashar Al Assad and the referendum due to renew his term in office later this month.

Assad "heads a mafia which has impoverished the country ... What can we expect from a repressive and corrupt regime which denies civil liberties?" Khaddam told Lebanon's Future TV channel from the French capital.

"We need democratic change ... Bashar has planted fear, increased poverty and backwardness," said Khaddam, who resigned as Syria's vice-president in 2005 to join the opposition.

Khaddam, a powerful and wealthy figure of the Baathist regime, which has ruled with an iron fist for the past four decades, criticized the Assad family, which he said was "monopolizing" power in Syria.

The Syrian parliament has set May 27 as the date for a referendum on Assad's candidacy for reelection to a new seven-year term.

"I am making an appeal to our Alawite [Muslim religious community] brothers, to all Baathists [ruling party], and to the army in order to tell them that our nation is in danger," Khaddam said. "We ask them to take up their responsibility," he said.

Khaddam and other opposition figures in exile have formed a group - the National Salvation Front - and said that they seek regime change in Syria by peaceful means.

Before his resignation, Khaddam was the most prominent Sunni in the regime dominated by the Alawite minority to which the Assad family belongs.

Assad succeeded his father, Hafez, on his death in June 2000 and official results showed that he won 97 percent of the vote in a referendum the following month.

Last year, a Syrian military court indicted Khaddam on seven charges, including conspiracy and attempts to usurp power and to stir hostility against Damascus. He is also being investigated for corruption.

Khaddam has in turn charged that Syrian intelligence agents implicated by a UN probe into the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri could not have acted without Assad's approval.

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From: Middle East Times _

Syrians wonders why springtime turned to winter as the Assad promise fades

By Mona Eltahawy

The first time I met Anwar al-Bunni, in June 2005, one of Syria’s numerous State-owned newspapers had just called him a traitor.

Over tea that he made us himself and countless cigarettes that he smoked as furiously as he defended human rights, Bunni explained that his presence across the desk from me in the office from which he defended countless Syrians who dared stand up to their regime was proof that Syria had changed.

His own family had paid a dear price for opposition – two brothers had spent a total of almost 30 years in prison between them.

That newspaper, sold ironically enough in a newsstand right under his office, had called Bunni a traitor on its front page because he had urged the European Union not to sign a trade agreement with Syria until it received guarantees from the Syrian government that it would respect human rights. In the old Syria (for which read: that of Hafez al-Assad), Bunni told me, he would have been bundled into a car in broad daylight and taken to a jail cell somewhere.

But Syria was changing, Bunni said. It had opened up to the world through the internet, it had a younger president in the form of Assad’s son, Bashar, and Bunni said that his appearances on pan-Arab satellite television channels effectively provided him with cover to speak out. Less than a year after I met him, Bunni was bundled into a car in broad daylight and thrown into a jail cell after he signed a petition calling for improved Lebanese-Syrian relations.

After almost a year in jail, he was finally put on trial on charges of spreading false or exaggerated news that could weaken national morale, affiliating with an unlicensed political association with an international nature, discrediting state institutions and contacting a foreign country. In April, he was sentenced to five years in jail.

Then, on 10 May, dissident Kamal al-Labwani was sentenced to 12 years in prison for contacting a foreign nation for the purpose of instigating attacks against Syria. He was arrested in November 2005 after returning from a trip to the United States where he met with senior officials to discuss human rights in his country.

So much for the new Syria.

Despite early hope: like father, like son

By Mona Eltahawy

The first time I met Anwar al-Bunni, in June 2005, one of Syria's numerous state-owned newspapers had just called him a traitor. Over tea that he made himself and countless cigarettes that he smoked as furiously as he defended human rights, Bunni explained that his presence across the desk from me in the office from which he defended countless Syrians who dared stand up to their regime was proof that Syria had changed. His own family had paid a dear price for opposition - two brothers had spent a total of almost 30 years in prison between them.

That newspaper, sold in a newsstand right under Bunni's office, called him a traitor on its front page because he had urged the European Union not to sign a trade agreement with Syria until it received guarantees from the Syrian government that it would respect human rights.

In the old Syria (read: that of Hafez Assad), he told me, he would have been bundled into a car in broad daylight to a jail cell somewhere. But Syria was changing, Bunni said. It had opened up to the world through the Internet, it had a younger president in the form of Assad's son, Bashar, and Bunni said that his appearances on pan-Arab satellite television channels effectively provided him with cover to speak out.

Less than a year after I met him, Bunni was bundled into a car in broad daylight and thrown into a jail cell after he signed a petition calling for improved Lebanese-Syrian relations. After almost a year in jail, he was finally put on trial on charges of spreading false or exaggerated news that could weaken national morale, affiliating with an unlicensed political association having an international nature, discrediting state institutions and contacting a foreign country. In April, he was sentenced to five years in jail. So much for the new Syria.

Syria: Peaceful Activist Gets 12 Years With Hard Labor

Labwani’s Sentence Discredits Syrian Claims of Political Reform

New York, May 11, 2007 – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should immediately exonerate prominent human rights activist Dr. Kamal al-Labwani, who was sentenced today to 12 years in prison including hard labor on politically motivated charges, Human Rights Watch said.

A Damascus criminal court convicted Labwani of “communicating with a foreign country and inciting it to initiate aggression against Syria.” Labwani had visited the United States and Europe in the fall of 2005 where he had met with government officials, journalists and human rights organizations. 

Labwani’s sentence was handed down two weeks after another prominent Syrian human rights activists, Anwar al-Bunni, was sentenced to five years in prison on politically motivated charges. 

“The Syrian government has accelerated its crackdown on free speech and peaceful activism,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Peaceful activists like Labwani are paying a heavy price for expressing their views.” 

Syrian security forces arrested Labwani, a physician and founder of the Democratic Liberal Gathering, on November 8, 2005 upon his return from a two-month trip to Europe and the United States. During his trip, he appeared on the pan-Arab Al-Mustaqilla and Al-Hurra television networks where he called on the Syrian government to respect fundamental freedoms and human rights.