JPost Reg Req’d
Fourteen pro-democracy activists are to stand trial in a military court on charges of belonging to an illegal group and promotion of internal conflict, a Syrian human rights group said Thursday.
An illegal group, huh? PFLP? Hamas? IJ? Hezbollah? Those are OK...Young Democrats of Aleppo? Jail ’em!
The 14 were among 22 activists detained briefly last month in the northern city of Aleppo after police raided a public hall where they were holding a political meeting, the Human Rights Association in Syria said. The prosecution of the activists violates freedom of expression, the rights group said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Damascus. It urged the government to put an end to "these arbitrary practices." The indictment and prosecution could not be verified with the judicial authorities as they usually do not comment on political cases.
| Aren't secret trials the rule? |
Politics has been tightly controlled in Syria since 1970 when the Baath Party and the Assad family took power. The "time has come to end the security state and move to a state of institutions and law that respects human rights," the director of the Human Rights Association in Syria, Haitham al-Maleh, said in the statement. The rights group said the trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 22. The accused will be charged with "joining an underground association and carrying out acts that could lead to internal conflict." The statement said that among the accused are members of the pro-democracy National Democratic Gathering, the Communist Action Party, and the lawyer and rights activist Najib Dadam. On Aug. 22, police detained the 22 activists during a meeting held at the al-Kawakby Forum, a public hall in Aleppo. They were released a day later after being interrogated. The rights group said then that the meeting was called to hear a lecture to mark the 40th anniversary of the declaration of the emergency law in Syria.
| 40 years of emergency law? That's a fairly lengthy emergency. Not as long as the Hundred Years War, I guess, but longer than the 30 Years War. Definitely longer than the War of Jenkins Ear... |
President Bashar Assad, who succeeded his late father Hafez Assad in 2000, has taken limited steps to loosen Syria from the totalitarian system he inherited. He released hundreds of political detainees and, initially, allowed political discussion groups to hold small gatherings indoors. But in 2001, Assad began to clamp down on pro-democracy activists, raiding their meetings and prosecuting two liberal lawmakers. The legislators were jailed after being convicted of trying illegally to change the constitution.
Tried to take out that dictatorship clause? Right to vote and form parties? Fools! This is a Baathist state! |