The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) expresses its deepest concern and earnest condemnation of the escalation of acts of suppression, harassment and intimidation practiced by Syrian authorities against political activists and advocates of reform, democracy and human rights. Such practices recently materialized in a series of unfair judicial rulings, which found support in the domination of the Executive Branch and the security service over judicial affairs on the one hand, and the arsenal of exceptional legal provisions commonly used to suppress public freedoms and all forms of peaceful political action on the other. Charges made against advocates illustrate the deterioration of the political, legal and judiciary system in Syria.
CIHRS condemns in this context the successive court rulings recently issued against a new group of political and human right activists, particularly:
• The unfair ruling of the Damascus Criminal Court against Kamal al-Lebwany, Syrian dissident and founder of the Democratic Liberal Gathering, sentencing him to 12 years in prison and depriving him of his civil rights on charges of “plotting with a foreign state to encourage attacks against Syria”! The same charge was made against him after his return from a visit to Europe and the United States of America two years ago, where he met with representatives of human rights organizations, the press, media and government officials. The tribunal ignored the evidence put forth by al-Lebwany’s attorneys, which included several of his declared statements where he stressed his opposition to any incitement of aggression against Syria.
• Persecution of opponents, intellectuals and jurists having signed the Damascus-Beirut Declaration, which calls on Syria to improve relations with Lebanon. This persecution took the form of a five year-imprisonment sentence against renowned human rights activist Mr. Anwar al-Benni, three years for both activists Michel Kilo and Mahmoud Issa. They were condemned of acting to “weaken national sentiments and arouse sectarianism and confessional feuds”! Court rulings included ten-year imprisonment sentences in absentia against Hassan Shamar and Khalil Hussein for the same charge, and also for making Syria susceptible to hostilities.
It is noteworthy in this connection that Syrian authorities have enacted several penal procedures against signatories of the Damascus-Beirut Declaration a year ago, including the ousting of 17 intellectuals from their professional occupation and decisions to forbid most of the signatories to the declaration as well as human rights defenders from traveling abroad.
• Exceptional and irrevocable rulings of the Supreme State Security Court, which target elements of the Islamic movement. Such rulings included three year imprisonment for Yasser Mardaly, on charges of affiliation with a secret association whose purpose it is to “change the socio-economic structure of the state”;
• Ruling of the Tartous Penal Court sentencing Syrian dissident and political activist Adel Mahfouz, to a six-month jail term on charges of “disturbing the peace of the nation”!
CIHRS expresses full solidarity with victims of police brutality and all forms of human rights violations in Syria, and stresses that civil society institutions in Syria the Arab World and the entire world should exert concerted efforts to put a final end to this systematic and persistent assault on political and public freedoms and human rights. Furthermore, CIHRS calls for the following:
1- Lifting the state of emergency that Syria has been living through for half a century now!
2- The immediate release of all prisoners of conscience and other detainees held for their opinions or for reasons closely related to peaceful political activity, and returning ousted employees to their former occupations, and compensating them for the harm they were made to suffer;
3- The complete revision of all legal provisions incriminating opinions and peaceful political action and restricting rights and public freedoms in sheer opposition to international obligations on the Syrian government ensuing from Syria’s ratification of a number of international human rights conventions;
4- Curbing the intervention of security and executive authorities in judiciary affairs and working to re-structure the judicial branch in a framework that would respect international standards of the independence of the judiciary.
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