(RSF/IFEX) – RSF welcomes Syrian journalist ‘Adel Isma’il’s release from prison, though the organisation regrets that he was not released sooner. RSF also remains concerned by the press freedom situation in Syria. Journalist Nizar Nayyouf, who was released on 6 May 2001 and is currently in France, remains under indirect pressure from the Syrian government. […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF welcomes Syrian journalist ‘Adel Isma’il’s release from prison, though the organisation regrets that he was not released sooner. RSF also remains concerned by the press freedom situation in Syria. Journalist Nizar Nayyouf, who was released on 6 May 2001 and is currently in France, remains under indirect pressure from the Syrian government. His family has been threatened with exile if it does not disassociate itself from him by 22 November. RSF has included President Bashar al-Assad on its list of the world’s thirty-nine press freedom predators.
After spending five years in detention, Isma’il, who was a contributor to the clandestine newsletter “El Democrati”, was released from Seydnaya prison on 18 November. He was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment in 1996 for “spreading false information” and being an activist of the banned Baas Democratic Party. The journalist, who was tortured during his detention, was released along with eight members of the Party for Communist Action (PCA), who were arrested between 1987 and 1992. These releases occurred within the framework of a 16 November “presidential pardon”, on the occasion of the anniversary of Hafez al-Assad’s accession to power in 1970. Last year, 600 political prisoners and three journalists, Samir al-Hassan, Nou’man Abdou and Faraj Ahmad Birqdar, were among those released during the same period. RSF spoke to Isma’il on the phone. He said he was in good health and happy to be free.
To RSF’s knowledge, Isma’il was the last detained journalist in Syria.
RSF and other international organisations recently launched an appeal urging the Syrian president to do everything in his power to end the harassment of Nayyouf’s family and ensure that the charges against the journalist are immediately dropped.
