Citizen Dies of Torture in Syrian Prison, Another Jailed

Citizen Dies of Torture in Syrian Prison, Another Jailed

 
A Syrian citizen died of torture inside a Syrian prison, the Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) said in a statement.
 
The SHRC has previously said, on Oct, 31st, 2007, that Syrian security services have been launching a crackdown in the governorate of Edleb. The committee said on Monday, Jan, 1st, 2008, that detainee Ahmed Abdul Ghafour Abdul Baqi, 24 years, died affected by the brutal torture committed against him in prison”, pointing out that “Syrian intelligence authorities attempted to hide the incident and they spread a rumour in the region of Mahmbal that he was killed in Iraq although there are proofs that he has been- along with dozens others- detained in Syrian prisons during the past five months. The committee mentioned in its statement names of 12 of these detainees”.
 
In a related context, the chief judge of the Supreme Criminal Court in Damascus issued an unfair ruling against the leader in the People”s Democratic Party in Syria , Faek Ali Asaad Al Meer, as he sentenced him to for 1 1/2 years.
 
The ruling that was issued in the presence of a number of lawyers, foreign diplomats and human rights organizations, came on charges of ” publishing false news, driving wedges, contacting hostile parties, attacking the regime and showing a public enmity to the state policy and repeatedly contacting Lebanese 14 March group”, the court decided to add his 1 year provisional detention, which he had already spent, to the sentence.
 
Faek Al Meer, 62 years, was detained in December 2006 for offering his condolences after the assassinations of George Hawi and Pierre Al-Jamil in Lebanon . The Syrian authorities considered these condolences a crime for which he must be punished.
 
For his part, the SHRC spokesman, Walid Saffour, said in a statement to Ikhwanweb that “the latest repressive rulings issued by the regime in Syria include issuing jail sentences just for offering consolation in the death of persons whose assassinations were condemned even by the Syrian authorities themselves. Thus, the ruling against Faek Al Meer is actually a doubled injustice”.
 
Saffour raise his eyebrows at the content of this ruling, saying:” This ruling is no justice, this ruling doesn”t reflect any independent or fair justice. It does not consider the human right in expressing one”s feelings. It only reflects the narrow-mindedness of the security authorities that want to control even human feelings.
 
Saffour saw that the ruling against Faek Al Meer is very tough and unjustified. He saw that Faek Al Meer is a prisoner of conscience who must be immediately released and that he should be compensated for the previous jail period which he spent since he was arrested.
 
Al Meer has rejected the during the trial sessions the content of the state security report concerning his relation with Lebanon”s 14 March group, pointing out that the phone call held between him and the Lebanese MP Elias Atallah was because the latter is Democratic Left Movement”s secretary-general and an old communist companion .