(RSF/IFEX) – As part of the amnesty of six hundred political prisoners, the Syrian authorities released two journalists, Samir Al-Hassan and Faraj Ahmad Birqdar, on 16 November 2000, date of the anniversary of Hafez el-Assad’s takeover in 1970. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard welcomed “such a measure, which constitutes a positive sign for freedom in Syria […]
(RSF/IFEX) – As part of the amnesty of six hundred political prisoners, the Syrian authorities released two journalists, Samir Al-Hassan and Faraj Ahmad Birqdar, on 16 November 2000, date of the anniversary of Hafez el-Assad’s takeover in 1970. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard welcomed “such a measure, which constitutes a positive sign for freedom in Syria and especially for freedom of expression.” “We now ask the authorities to go further and release the three other journalists who, to the knowledge of RSF, are still in prison in Syria: Nou’man Abdu, ‘Adel Isma’il and Nizar Nayyouf.” RSF is deeply concerned about Nayyouf’s conditions of detention.
Al-Hassan, Palestinian journalist with the weekly “Al Asifa” and publisher of the magazine “Fatah al-Intifada”, was arrested on 1 April 1986. Birqdar, poet and contributor to the Lebanese monthly “Al-Tarik”, was arrested in 1992. Their trial only started in 1993. They were tried before the State Security Supreme Court. In such special courts, trials are held in camera, the presence of a lawyer is forbidden, confessions obtained under torture are used as proof and no appeals procedure exists. The journalists were sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment for belonging to a banned party, the Communist Action Party.
Three journalists remain imprisoned in Damascus. Abdou, contributor to the Lebanese monthly “Al-Tarik”, was arrested in 1992 and sentenced in 1993 to fifteen years’ imprisonment for belonging to the Communist Action Party. On 16 November, he was transferred from Seydnaya prison to a detention centre in Damascus. Isma’il, journalist with the Lebanese daily “Al Raïa”, was arrested in 1996. Accused of being an activist with the banned Democratic Baath Party, he was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment. Nayyouf, journalist with the weekly “Al-Hurriya” and the magazine “Al-Ma’arifa” and member of the human rights organisation CDF (Committee for the Defense of Democratic Freedom and Human Rights in Syria, an organisation banned by the government), was arrested in 1992. He was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment and deprival of his civil rights for having written a leaflet denouncing human rights violations during the 1991 elections. Winner in 1998 of the RSF – Fondation de France prize, the journalist suffers from serious digestive problems, fractured vertebrae and deterioration of his eyesight. He cannot walk without crutches at present.
