An Open Letter to The Syrian President, Bashar al- Assad Requesting to Release Tal al-Mallouhi , The Youngest Prisoner of Conscience in The Arab World

An Open Letter to The Syrian President, Bashar al- Assad Requesting to Release Tal al-Mallouhi , The Youngest Prisoner of Conscience in The Arab World

 

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information , 6th April movement, al-Ghad Liberal Party  and Egyptian bloggers and activists publish the letter addressed to the Syrian President , Bashar al- Assad after the Syrian Ambassador refused to receive the delegation of the Arabic Network and the organizers of the solidarity stand in order to deliver the letter to the Syrian President expressing solidarity with the student blogger Tal al-Mallouhi who is detained by Syrian security since 27/12/2009. The participants urged the Syrian President to declare her detention location and reasons ,release her or declare the charges against her and try her before her natural judge.

The Arabic Network called for a solidarity stand in front of the Syrian Embassy on 19/9/2010 at 3:00 pm to deliver the enclosed letter to the Syrian President and urging him to interfere for releasing Tal , the high school student who is detained for her opinions since 9 months.

Participants in the stand were surprised to find that central security forces has surrounded the embassy and blocked all leading routes. Security forces prevented participants from reaching to the embassy , so the delegation of participants asked to see the ambassador to deliver the letter. Security official said that the ambassador will receive no one at that time. However, the participants insisted on staging their stand , they raised their banners at the beginning of the street leading to the Syrian embassy . The stand was held for an hour in a peaceful manner giving no excuse to security to harass anybody.

The Arabic Network said , ” The ambassador’s  refusal to receive the participants’ delegation displays that the Syrian government insists on violating citizens’ rights in freedom of expression. It shows that Syria has no intention of taking positive steps to improve its record on freedoms.  Syrian prisons now are known to have the oldest prisoner of opinion in the Arab world , Haitham al-Maleh ,80 years old, and Tal al-Mallouhi , the youngest  prisoner of opinion ,19 years old.

The Letter to The Syrian President, Bashar al- Assad

Cairo  September 19th , 2010

His Excellency Bashar al-Assad
President of the Syrian Arab Republic

Republican Palace
Abu Rummaneh, Al-Rashid Street
Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic

Dear Mr. President,

On  December 27th , 2009, the Syrian security forces arrested the student Tal Dawsar al-Mallouhi,19 years old, a blogger on the Internet, without notifying her family or lawyers or declaring the reason of her arrest or the start of  a judicial investigation.

So far, nine months after the arrest of the student Tal al-Mallouhi, no judicial authority declared the reasons of her arrest or declare pressing any charges against her leaving everyone to the presumption that the reason for her arrest was the poetry she writes on her blog , Modawanati, http://talmallohi.blogspot.com

During the current  month , news has widely spread that Tal died  in detention. If this were true, it would be a serious incident that dictates an urgent and transparent investigation whose results should be declared to the public and the perpetuators should be tried for their crimes. If Tal is still alive, security authorities have to declare the real reasons for her long detention without charge or trial.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, 6th April movement , alGhad party and Egyptian activists and bloggers express deep worry at the detention of a Syrian citizen without investigation or trial. Despite the emergency state is valid in Syria, the emergency law does not allow detaining citizens without declaring the reasons knowing that Syria has ratified  the international covenant for civil and political rights that provides personal freedom and security for all citizens without exceptions as well as providing the right to opinion and expression.

We urge you Mr. President to instruct security authorities to declare the reasons for detaining Tal al-Mallouhi , to put her to a fair trial if charges were pressed against her or to release her immediately and compensate her for the illegal detention period in abidance to the rule of law and in accordance with human rights principles.

We also remind you Mr. President of the many prisoners of conscience in Syria, such as Haitham al-Maleh , Mohanad al-Hasany, Ali al-Abdallah , Nour Youssef and others who committed no crime but enjoyed their right to expression.

We urge you  Mr. President to take the initiative to stop these violations immediately and put Syria on the track of respect and protection of human rights for all citizens without exception.

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