(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to release five imprisoned cyber-dissidents, including Massud Hamid, a 29-year-old Kurdish journalism student who is due to appear before the Supreme State Security Court on 25 July 2004, to face charges of “belonging to an illegal organisation”. Hamid was arrested on 24 July 2003 at […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to release five imprisoned cyber-dissidents, including Massud Hamid, a 29-year-old Kurdish journalism student who is due to appear before the Supreme State Security Court on 25 July 2004, to face charges of “belonging to an illegal organisation”.
Hamid was arrested on 24 July 2003 at Damascus University and has since been held in solitary confinement at nearby Adra prison. The court is under military authority and its rulings cannot be appealed.
RSF urged President Assad to pardon the five Internet users, some of whom have been held for nearly two years, in the wake of a pardon he recently granted to about 100 Kurds, including several political prisoners.
Hamid was arrested one month after photos of a June 2003 peaceful demonstration of Kurds in front of UNICEF’s offices in Damascus were posted on the website http://www.amude.com. The German-based website focuses mainly on Kurdish culture and identity issues and claims to receive up to 5,000 visitors a day.
Hamid has recently been allowed visits from his lawyer and relatives once every two months. He has been held in solitary confinement for a year. His psychological condition has reportedly suffered and, according to Amnesty International, he has been ill-treated in detention.
Another cyber-dissident, Abdel Rahman Shagouri, aged 31, was given a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence on 20 June 2004 by the Supreme State Security Court for “publishing false information” online that was said to “harm Syria’s image and national security”. He was arrested by intelligence officials on 23 February 2003 for e-mailing a copy of a newsletter from the banned website http://www.thisissyria.net. Shagouri is detained in Saidnaya prison, near Damascus, where he has reportedly been tortured.
The Damascus-based Syrian Human Rights Association says three other cyber-dissidents may appear at the 25 July court hearing. Brothers Mohammed and Haytham Quteish and Yahia Al-Aws are all accused of “spreading false news abroad” after sending information to a United Arab Emirates-based news website. Al-Aws, aged 31, was arrested around 12 September 2003 and is reportedly being detained in Saidnaya prison.
For more information about Internet freedom in Syria, see RSF’s 2004 “Internet Under Surveillance” report at http://www.internet.rsf.org
