Internationalt menneskerettighedsnetværk med hovedsæde i København bifalder løsladelsen af den 80 årige menneskerettighedsaktivist Haytham Al-Maleh, som har siddet ulovligt fængslet siden marts 2009.
Paris-Geneva-Copenhagen, March 9, 2011:
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders – a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) welcome the presidential pardon in favour of Mr. Haytham Al-Maleh, an 80-year-old prominent Syrian human rights lawyer and former President of the Human Rights Association in Syria (HRAS).
Mr. Haytham Al-Maleh had been unlawfully arrested by officers of the General Intelligence Service on 14 October 2009. On 4 July 2010, the Second Military Court of Damascus sentenced him to three years of imprisonment for “transferring false and exaggerated news that weaken national sentiments”. His health status had deteriorated while in detention.
From February to July 2010, the Observatory and the EMHRN carried out in collaboration with the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) a series of missions to Damascus to monitor the hearings in the trial against Haytham Al-Maleh.
On the basis of these findings, the above-mentioned organisations have undertaken a comprehensive assessment of the fairness of the trial, and issued a joint trial observation report which demonstrates that the entire procedure was marred by human rights violations from the time of arrest, through detention, trial and conviction.
“We welcome the release of this prominent human rights defender, who has been detained over the past months for having merely criticised the continued use of the emergency laws in Syria and the ongoing control of the Syrian authorities over the judicial system” FIDH President Souhayr Belhassen said today.
Read full story here: http://www.euromedrights.org/en/news-en/emhrn-releases/emhrn-statements-2011/9276.html
