Mazen Darwish to commence his third year of pre-trial detention
Paris-Geneva, February 14, 2014. February16 will mark the two-year anniversary of the arrest of journalist and humanrights defender Mazen Darwish and two of his colleagues, who remain arbitrarilydetained without trial in Damascus Central Prison in Adra. FIDH and OMCT, within the frameworkof the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, reiterate on this occasion their solidarity with the humanrights movement in Syria and call for the release of all human rights defendersdetained or disappeared.
“Though, there is no greater happiness for a prisoner thanthe knowledge that the outer world is remembering him, as devastation andbloodshed has engulfed my homeland, happiness has become a kind of luxury forwhich I feel ashamed.”
Mazen Darwish, June 10, 2013,Damascus Central Prison in Adra
Mazen Darwish, President of the SyrianCentre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), together with two other SCMmembers, MohamedHani Al Zaitani and Hussein Hammad Ghrer, lingers in pre-trial detention since February 2012for advocating for freedom of expression and for monitoring gross human rightsviolations committed in Syria in particular since March 2011.
On February 16, 2012, Mazen Darwish wasarrested along with 15 other persons. During approximately nine months, Darwishand some of his colleagues were assumed “forcibly disappeared” and subjected toacts of torture. Yet the judgeshave so far failed to open investigations into these allegations, contrary totheir obligation under international law. In February 2013, five of them,including the three detained SCM members and two other colleagues, Mansour Omariand Abdel Rahman Hamada, were informed that they would be prosecuted by theAnti-Terrorism Court for “publicising terrorist acts”, charges which arecompletely unjustified. If convicted, the activists could be imprisoned for upto 15 years. The trial has been adjourned on numerous occasions. The nexthearing has been scheduled for March 10, 2014.
“Human rights defenders have been paying a very heavy toll inSyria. Dozens of them are arbitrarily detained, sometimes incommunicado, orhave been 'forcibly disappeared'. Meaningful negotiation for an end to theSyrian conflict requires that all peaceful advocates be immediately released”,declared Karim Lahidji, FIDH President.
“The continuous detentionof Mazen Darwish, Hussein Hammad Ghrer and MohamedHani Al Zaitani clearly forms part of a wider campaign of threats andharassment against human rights defenders in Syria. We therefore call onthe Syrian authorities to release them immediately and unconditionally as wellas to order investigations into the above-mentioned allegations of torture andill-treatment”, further urged Gerald Staberock, OMCT SecretaryGeneral.
On theoccasion of the two-year anniversary of the detention of Mazen Darwish, Hani AlZaitani and Hussein Ghrer, the Observatory reiterates its call to the Syrianauthorities to immediately comply with the decision of the UN Working Group onArbitrary Detention (WGAD), which recently declared the detention of the threehuman rights defenders as arbitrary and asked for their immediate release. More generally, theObservatory urges the Syrian authorities to release all humanrights defenders detained in Syria merely toprevent them from carrying out their legitimate and peaceful human rights work.