Egyptian human rights organizations condemned today the harsh penalty decided by the military court in Hamas city, Syria against the writer “Habib Saleh”, 59 years old, because some of his articles via internet that criticizing the Syrian government.
Habib Saleh was arrested in May 27, 2005 from his office in Tartos, and he was kept under arrest for more than one year until the yesterday sentence of three years in jail. The military court accused him of “disseminating fake news!”.
This decision was not the first of its kind against Saleh. In 2002 he was sentenced of three years along with other ten activists in a case called “Damascus Spring”. Syria is under the state of emergency for 43 years.
Egyptian NGOs states that “The freedom of expression and the political criticizing is a right for every citizen. And when the government claims that this criticizing went beyond the limits of the law, there should be a fair and justice trail, which was not the case with Habib Saleh. Trail under the military courts and the state of emergency does not respect the minimum standards of justice.
Habeb Saleh is the Seventh Syrian writer who is tried for his online articles. The unfair military trials became a systematic way dealing with the writers, journalists, and democracy advocators in Syria.
For more information about the internet prisoners in Syria:
http://www.openarab.net/cd/syria.shtml
1. Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo)
2. Association for Human Rights Legal Aid
3. Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
4. South Center for Human Rights
5. Al-Nadim Center for Psychological Rehabilitation of the Victims of Violence
6. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
7. Egyptian Association against Torture
8. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
9. Center for Rural Studies- Egypt
10. Hisham Mubark Center for Law
11. The Arabic Program for Human Rights Activists
12. Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression
13. Maat Center for Legal and Constitutional Studies- Egypt
14. The Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement
15. Andalus Center for the Studies of Tolerance and Violence Confrontation
16. The Egyptian association for economic and social rights
17. Habi Center for Environmental Rights – Egypt
18. Development and Human Rights Forum – Egypt
19. Shomuu for Humanitarian Rights Care
20. Awlad Al-Ard Institution for Human Rights
Share this Post