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Syria must stop repression against human rights defenders
Syria must release and immediately put an end to all arbitrary measures against the Al Bunni family and Syrian human rights defenders, who have been subjected to continuous repression.
In the morning of 11 December, writer and activist Akram Al Bunni, who was once a political prisoner for 17 years under Hafez Assad’s regime, was arrested by the Syrian security services. No charges have been notified to him. His family remains to this day without news from him.
His brother, Anwar Al Bunni, a laywer and an eminent human rights defender, was sentenced on 24 April 2007 by the criminal court to 5 years of imprisonment following his denunciation of the practice of torture by the security services and his call for democratic reform in Syria. Since his arrest, on 17 May 2006, he has been detained in the prison of Adra, where he has been subjected to mistreatment, although he was supposed to be hospitalised for rheumatic pains.
Anwar Al Bunni’s wife is also a victim of arbitrary measures, as she was dismissed in May 2007 from her job in the Ministry of Transports following a decision of the Prime Minister.
At the moment when the world is about to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, It seems like the Syrian government has decided to carry out a campaign of arrests against opponents to the regime and human rights defenders.
These arrests are occurring in the aftermath of the meeting, on 1 December 2007, of the Committee of the Damascus Declaration, which gathered 163members. Among the defenders still detained are Jabr Shouffi, member of the Committees for the Defense of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights in Syria (CDF), and Ahmed Tamaa, defender and member of the political opposition.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) requests the Syrian authorities to respect all obligations contained in the international instruments ratified by Syria, and consequently to immediately release Akram and Anwar Al-Bunni, Jabr Shouffi and Ahmed Tamaa.
The EMHRN also urges the Syrian authorities to put an end with no further delay to acts of harassment, arrests and arbitrary detention of human rights defenders and opposition leaders and to release the other detainees who were condemned for having exercised their right to freedom of expression and association.
Finally, the EMHRN calls on the European Union and its member states to take all appropriate measures of support and assistance to Syrian human rights defenders under threat.
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