(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has hailed the release of academic and cyber-dissident Ali Sayed al-Shihabi on 9 January 2007 after five months in detention. Arrested on 10 August 2006 for articles posted on a far-left website, he was freed under a presidential amnesty marking the Muslim Eid celebrations. “We hope this pardon will open […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has hailed the release of academic and cyber-dissident Ali Sayed al-Shihabi on 9 January 2007 after five months in detention. Arrested on 10 August 2006 for articles posted on a far-left website, he was freed under a presidential amnesty marking the Muslim Eid celebrations.
“We hope this pardon will open the way for more releases, because we have not forgotten that two other cyber-dissidents and a journalist are still imprisoned in Syria,” the press freedom organisation said. “Shihabi was subjected to appalling prison conditions and mistreatments during interrogation sessions, which highlight the lack of humanity of the Syrian authorities towards prisoners of conscience.”
Prior to his arrest, 52-year-old Shihabi was interrogated several times by the security services about the articles he was posting on the Internet, especially on the far-left website http://www.rezgar.com, in which he said he wanted to create a new political party to be called “Syria for Everyone.”
A collection of his online articles was published in 2005 is a book entitled “Where is Syria going?” It was widely sold in neighbouring Lebanon.
Shihabi was previously imprisoned for a year in 1975, and again for nine years, from 1982 to 1991, for being a member of the banned Communist Party of Syria (PCA).
The two cyber-dissidents still in prison are Habib Saleh and Muhened Abdulrahman. Saleh was arrested on 29 May 2005. Abdulrahman was arrested on 7 September 2006. Journalist and writer Michel Kilo has been detained since 14 May 2006.
