Jailed Syria activists lose early release petition: group
AFP
DAMASCUS - Twelve pro-democracy Syrian activists, jailed after calling for greater democracy, lost their petition for early release and will have to serve their full 30-month sentence, a human rights group said on Wednesday.
"The Court of Appeal rejected the petition presented by the lawyers of the opponents who had signed the 'Damascus Declaration,'" the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.
It said the lawyers had filed for an early release "under the terms of a law making it possible for prisoners to be freed after serving three quarters of their jail sentence."
Syrian police stand guard outside the US embassy in Damascus (Louai Beshara/AFP)
Author Ali Abdullah, Dr Walid Bunni, writer Akram Bunni, and former MP Riad Seif were convicted, as were Fidaa Hurani, Ahmad Tomeh, Jabr al-Shufi, Yasser al-Iti, Mohammed Haji Darwish, Marwan al-Ish, Fayez Sara and Talal Abu-Dan.
Akram Bunni is a brother of human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni, who is serving a five-year jail term.
SOHR said it was "astonished" that a law allowing early release of prisoners did not extend the same right to political prisoners.
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