Rights groups ask Syria to free ailing lawyer
AFP
DAMASCUS - Syrian and Arab human rights groups jointly called on the Syrian government on Wednesday to free ailing 79-year-old rights lawyer Haytham Maleh, jailed for "disseminating false information."
"We call on the Syrian government to drop all charges against Maleh and to free him immediately given the deteriorating state of his health," a joint statement said.
Holding Maleh, arrested in October, is "a violation of freedom of speech and of the international treaty of civil rights and politics signed by Syria."
The actual charge against Maleh is one of "disseminating false information that could weaken national sentiment" for interviews and articles that he published.
The statement also called on the government to "decree a general amnesty for all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Syrian jails."
Maleh, who has worked with Amnesty International since 1989 and was involved in the creation of a human rights organisation in Syria, was arrested in 1980 and held for six years for calling for constitutional reform.
Separately, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights issued a statement calling for the "immediate and unconditional release of Baathist opposition figure Osman Bassamsi, 70 years of age," arrested on February 21 after returning home from 42 years of exile in Iraq.
Bassamsi had reportedly been given assurances by the Syrian embassy in Baghdad that he would not be arrested.
The SOHR called on the government to "authorise (opposition figures) taking refuge in Iraq to return to the country without conditions, and to stop arbitrary arrests."
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The actual charge against Maleh is one of "disseminating false information that could weaken national sentiment" for interviews and articles that he published.
The statement also called on the government to "decree a general amnesty for all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Syrian jails."
Maleh, who has worked with Amnesty International since 1989 and was involved in the creation of a human rights organisation in Syria, was arrested in 1980 and held for six years for calling for constitutional reform.
Separately, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights issued a statement calling for the "immediate and unconditional release of Baathist opposition figure Osman Bassamsi, 70 years of age," arrested on February 21 after returning home from 42 years of exile in Iraq.
Bassamsi had reportedly been given assurances by the Syrian embassy in Baghdad that he would not be arrested.
The SOHR called on the government to "authorise (opposition figures) taking refuge in Iraq to return to the country without conditions, and to stop arbitrary arrests."
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