Brussels, 27/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - The EU “strongly condemns” the sentence pronounced in Damascus against two Syrian lawyers, Al Maleh and Haitham Al Hassani, who have received a penalty of three years' imprisonment, a press release from EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton indicates. The EU also “deeply deplores” the renewed arrest on 17 June of Ali Al-Abdullah, a Syrian writer, a day after his release from prison having completed his previous sentence. The EU is “particularly gravely concerned” by the situation of Al Maleh, due to his fragile health and advanced age, and calls for the immediate release of all three prisoners. Catherine Ashton invites the Syrian government to “reconsider all cases of prisoners of conscience in accordance with its national Constitution and its international commitments and to immediately release all such prisoners”. Finally, she states, the above convictions undermine the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of association. She calls on Syria to abide by the international commitments it freely entered into, in particular under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees freedom of opinion and of expression and the right to a fair trial.
The European Parliament is also “deeply concerned” about the well-being of the well-known human rights defender, Haitham Al-Maleh. President Jerzy Buzek states he has written to President Assad calling for his personal engagement on this case, and for a pardon to be issued for Al-Maleh. Such a gesture would be seen as an important sign of the Syrian authorities' strong commitment to respect a due process of law as well as a source of hope for all Syrian citizens who are genuinely engaged in assuring that the rule of law and human rights are respected. “Such an act would, moreover, be highly regarded by the members of the European Parliament, whose genuine commitment to protecting human rights and fundamental values has always been one of the driving forces behind the EU's neighbourhood policy”.
On 19 July this year, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a critical report on Syria. After ten years in power, President Bachar el-Assad has still not kept his pledge to increase public freedoms and improve the human rights situation in Syria, HRW states just before the anniversary of the Syrian leader's accession to power. Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW Director in the Middle East, said that, whether President el-Assad is a leader who had hoped to begin reform but who was prevented by a well-established guard, or whether he was an Arab leader who remains deaf to criticism, the results are the same for the Syrian people - they have no freedom, no rights. After ten years of power, el-Assad has done practically nothing to improve the human rights situation in the country, she said. In March 2005, HRW explains, President el-Assad had told journalists that the coming period would be one of freedom for the political parties in Syria, and yet Syria remains de facto a single-party state, where only the Baas Party is able to operate freely. (F.B./transl.)