 Haitham Al-Maleh, one of the Syrian human rights defenders currently in hiding |
Syrian human rights defenders are being targeted by the Syrian authorities as protests escalate across the country. Haytham Al-Maleh and Razan Zaitouni are sought after by the Syrian authorities and are currently in hiding, while Fayez Sara, Dana Jawabra and Hassan Abdel Azim are all currently in custody. These men are long-standing human rights defenders and are leading voices of Syrian protests. They have all either been previously arrested and served jail sentences or are currently under a travel ban.
On 4 May 2011, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders regarding these five cases. Alkarama fears for their physical and mental integrity, as they are at risk of torture and ill-treatment by the Syrian security services. Haitham Al-Maleh and Fayez Sara are amongst many Syrian activists to have gone into hiding to avoid being arrested.
Thousands of people continue to be arrested, tortured and killed for their alleged participation in, or calls for, peaceful demonstrations. Despite the abolition of the emergency law and the State Security Court on 20 April 2011, arbitrary arrests and human rights abuses continue to be committed by the authorities with total impunity. Human rights activist and journalists are the security forces main targets, and have been forced to go into hiding to avoid being arrested. Alkarama is informed that Syrian security forces have lists of human rights defenders whom they are seeking to arrest at their homes.
Here are the personal details of the five human rights defenders in question:
Mr Haitham Al-Maleh (هيثم المالح) is an 80 year-old leading Syrian human rights activist and lawyer. As an outspoken critic of the government, he has been the subject of multiple arrests and was recently tried and sentence to three years imprisonment by the Syrian authorities on the grounds of having "spread false information" and "weakening the national sentiment". He was released on 8 March 2011 following a year and a half of detention, he remains threatened by security forces, and is currently in hiding. Alkarama had already previously worked on his case, informing the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of his imprisonment – which was found to be arbitrary. He is currently being sought for arrest.
Mr Fayez Sara (فايز سارة) is a well-known 61 year-old Syrian writer and journalist. He was arrested on Monday 11 April 2011 in Damascus, after having participated to a meeting of the National Council for the "Damascus Declaration". He was arrested in 2008 and detained for two years for having signed the declaration, which called for the emergency law to be lifted and the established right to freedom of expression and assembly.
Ms Razan Zaitouni (رزان زيتونة) is a 34 year-old lawyer whose clients are political prisoners. She is the founder of the Syrian Human Rights Organization and is banned from travelling outside the country. In recent weeks, she has come under considerable harassment from security forces. Ms Zaitouni had to leave her home and has been in hiding ever since. Security agents tried to arrest her husband, Wael Al-Hamada, also a political activist, from his work place, but he managed to escape. Her brother-in-law, Mr Abdel Rahman Al-Hamada, 22, was however arrested at their house and remains disappeared to date. Alkarama intends to submit his case to the relevant UN Human Rights Special Procedures.
Ms Dana Jawabra (دانا جوابرة) is a 39 year-old engineer, journalist and human rights campaigner. She was arrested on 16 March while taking part in a silent protest in Damascus to demand the release of the thousands of political prisoners in Syria. Ms Jawabra was released on 27 March and rearrested on 3 May 2011 by secret police agents outside her home in Damascus. She remains disappeared to date.
Mr Hassan Abdel Azim (حسن عبدالعظيم) is an 81 year-old lawyer and human rights activist, Secretary General of the Arab Socialist Union party and spokesman for the National Democratic Rally, a left-leaning opposition party. He was arrested in Damascus on 30 April 2011 from his office by security forces, who took him to an unknown destination. They did not provide any legal document to explain the reasons for his arrest, despite the lifting of emergency rule.
According to sources, many other human rights campaigners from across Syria have also been arrested and threatened as part of the crackdown on protests. Peaceful demonstrations, which began in mid-March 2011, are calling for a significant improvement to the human rights situation in Syria and end to corruption. Despite putting themselves at risk, Syrian rights campaigners continue to criticise the security forces for having resorted to violence to quell peaceful protestors.
The pattern of violence and general human rights violations is on the rise and it is becoming clear that the problem has now reached a systematic and widespread level.