(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release: **Updates IFEX alerts of 29 September, 17 September and 10 September 1998, 11 October and 27 January 1995** Paris, 1 April 1999 For immediate release Syrian Journalist May Die in Prison The World Association of Newspapers has appealed to the Syrian government to release journalist Nizar […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release:
**Updates IFEX alerts of 29 September, 17 September and 10 September
1998,
11 October and 27 January 1995**
Paris, 1 April 1999
For immediate release
Syrian Journalist May Die in Prison
The World Association of Newspapers has appealed to the Syrian
government to
release journalist Nizar Nayyouf from prison, where he is reported to
have
been severely tortured, denied medical treatment and to be in danger of
dying.
“The case of this journalist provides an alarming insight into the
situation
of human rights in Syria,” WAN said in a letter to President Hafez
al-Assad
which called on Syria to respect international conventions and release
Mr
Nayyouf.
Mr Nayyouf, Editor in Chief of Sawt al-Democratiyya and
Secretary-General of
the Committee for the Defence of Democratic Freedom in Syria, was
arrested
in 1992 and sentenced to ten years of forced labour for being a member
of an
“unauthorized” organization and for disseminating “false” information.
He
has now served seven years of his sentence.
Mr Nayyouf is confined to a tiny solitary cell and cannot walk, as his
legs
are paralysed and his vertebrae fractured due to the repeated torture
inflicted on him by prison authorities.
“His sight is failing, following a fracture to the back of his head; his
stomach is haemorrhaging as he is forced to eat food contaminated by the
urine of his jailers. Burns from cigarettes stumped out on his skin have
healed badly and left him with dermatitis,” said the letter to President
Assad, signed by WAN President Bengt Braun.
Mr Nayyouf is also suffering from leukemia, a curable form of cancer
which
requires chemotherapy in its early stages. “Prison authorities have
refused
to administer medical treatment unless he pledges to refrain from
political
activity and signs a statement acknowledging that ‘he made false
declarations concerning the situation of human rights in Syria,'” the
WAN
letter said.
Paris-based WAN, the global organization for the newspaper industry, has
also asked its members to join the campaign of pressure, both directly
and
through their own governments. WAN represents 15,000 newspapers
worldwide;
its membership includes 57 national newspaper associations, individual
newspaper executives in 90 countries, 17 news agencies and seven
regional
press groups.
Details of the campaign to free Nizar Nayyouf, along with a model letter
to
send to the Syrian government, can be found on the WAN web site at
www.wan-press.org, or by contacting the WAN Secretariat.
