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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Pro-Kurdish Activists Released in Syria |
| 2006-10-01 |
| DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Two advocates for Kurdish rights have been freed from prison, a Syrian human rights group said Sunday. Mohammed Ghanem, 51, a writer and human rights activist has been released after completing a six-month prison term for insulting President Bashar Assad, the National Organization for Human Rights said in an e-mail. NOHR said Ghanem had been released "recently" but did not specify when. Publisher and editor-in-chief for the online magazine "Al-Souriyoun" ("The Syrians"), Ghanem also wrote political commentary for the periodical in support of Kurdish demands. He was arrested in March in Raqqa, 345 miles northeast of the Syrian capital, and convicted on charges of insulting the Syrian president, discrediting the Syrian government and fomenting sectarian unrest. The rights group said another activist, Kurdish engineering student Lashfan Hassan Abdo, 23, also was released from prison. Abdo was arrested on charges of fomenting sectarian strife following riots between Syrian Kurds and Arabs during a soccer match in the northeastern city of Qamishli in March 2004 and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. Syria's population of 20 million includes 2.5 million people of Kurdish origin, including 150,000 stateless Kurds who are mostly refugees from Turkey, Iran and other countries but may have lived in Syria for years. |
| Posted by:Steve White |