Rights Activists Face Terrorism Charges

(Amsterdam, Beirut, Cairo, Copenhagen, Damascus, Dublin, Geneva, London, New York, Paris, The Hague, Utrecht - May17, 2013)

Theinternational community should urge the Syrian authorities to immediately and unconditionallyrelease and drop all charges against a freedom of expression activist and twoof his colleagues, 19 regional and international human rights organizationssaid today. Mazen Darwish and two ofhis colleagues from the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression(SCM), Hussein Gharir and Hani Zaitani, are facing trial onterrorism charges for their peaceful activism, the groups said.

The threeactivists along with two of their other colleagues, Mansour Omari and AbdelRahman Hamada, who wereconditionally released on February 6, 2013, are scheduled to appear before theAnti-Terrorism Court in Damascus on May 19. During the trial, the judge willdecide whether to pursue the charges brought against them by the SyrianGovernment’s Air Force Intelligence.

The SyrianJustice Minister recently told an international delegation that he would free72 activists, including the three detained SCM members. Other countries,including allies of the Syrian government, should press the government to dropthe charges and free them, the human rights organizations said.

Syria’s AirForce Intelligence detained the three men over a year ago, holding them in incommunicadodetention for several months, on charges related to SCM´s work to promote andprotect human rights in Syria. Air Force Intelligence officials subjected themto torture and other ill-treatments in detention according to former detaineeswho had been held with the men. The organizations said the charges violatefreedom of expression by being solely based on the three men’s peacefulactivism.

Theorganizations expressed serious concern for the physical and psychologicalwell-being of the three activists, given the treatment they have apparentlybeen subjected to in detention and the length of their arbitrary imprisonment.

The February27 indictment against all five staff members accuses them of “publicizingterrorist acts” under Article 8 of the Anti-Terrorism Law, enacted by PresidentBashar al-Assad in 2012. If convicted the men may be imprisoned for up to 15years.

Theindictment states that these charges were brought against Darwish as the headof the SCM and the four other men for their activities as SCM staff members,including monitoring online news by the Syrian opposition, publishing studieson the human rights and media situation in Syria, and documenting names of thedetained, disappeared, wanted and killed within the context of the Syrianconflict. The indictment further states that an investigative judge in Damascusconsidered these actions part of an attempt to “stir the internal situation inSyria and so provoke international organizations to condemn Syria ininternational forums.”

The trial ofthe activists illustrates the government’s repression against critical voicesin Syria and fits in a wider pattern of systematic censorship and repressionagainst professional journalists, media workers, citizen journalists (includingbloggers) and media activists who defend freedom of expression in Syria, thegroups said. An attorney working on behalf of political detainees in Damascustold the organizations that to his knowledge at least 35,000 politicaldetainees were being tried before the terrorism court. He believed that the terrorismcourt was set up specifically to target the opposition in Syria.

The Syriangovernment should not use its overbroad terrorism law to punish peacefulactivists for their legitimate work, the organizations said. Further, theirtrial should not be held in the Anti-Terrorism Court, which does not afforddefendants basic due process rights according to international fair trialstandards.

This courtis responsible for prosecutions under the Anti-Terrorism Law, which defines anact of terrorism as “every act that aims at creating a state of panic among thepeople, destabilizing public security and damaging the basic infrastructure ofthe country by using weapons, ammunition, explosives, flammable materials,toxic products, epidemiological or bacteriological factors or any method fulfillingthe same purposes.”

The law alsostipulates that promoting “terrorism,” including by distributing literature, orother information, is punishable by imprisonment with hard labor. Financingterrorism includes supplying, directly or indirectly, money, weapons,ammunition, explosives, means of communication, information, or “other things”to be used in the implementation of a terrorist act.

Although theSyrian authorities technically lifted a state of emergency law on April 21,2011, they enacted Legislative Decree 55 on the same day. The decree limits thetime that a person may be lawfully held in detention without judicial review to60 days for certain crimes, including terrorism offenses. A former detaineetold Human Rights Watch that high-ranking officers explained to him while hewas in detention that they were using this provision and the Anti-Terrorism Lawto hold detainees legally for up to 60 days, pending judicial review.

This limitdoes not meet the requirement in international law that judicial review ofdetention should take place “promptly,” the groups said. Furthermore, severalformer detainees interviewed by the organizations said that they had been heldwithout judicial review even longer than the 60 days permitted by Syrian law.

A sourceclose to Darwish’s family told the organizations how challenging it has beenfor him to fight the charges against him under the terrorism law and before theterrorism court. He did not have access to a lawyer or any family members fornine months and 20 days before being sent to Damascus Central Prison, commonlyknown as ‘Adra prison. He was not informed that he would be tried before aterrorism court until November 30, the date an investigative judge in theterrorism court began interrogating him. Even then, he was not informed of thecharges against him until an indictment was issued on February 27, over a yearafter he was detained.

On May 15,the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution,calling, among other things, for the Syrian government to release Mazen Darwishand the other imprisoned SCM staff. The resolution stressed the importance ofending impunity and holding to account all those responsible for seriousviolations or abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law. Theresolution requires UN member states to apply concrete pressure on the Syrianauthorities and their allies to drop the charges against these men. The Syrianauthorities should respect the UN resolution and drop the charges againstDarwish and his colleagues in SCM, the organizations said. The Syriaauthorities should also drop all charges against tens of thousands of detaineescharged merely for their peaceful activism and held in detention centersthroughout Syria.

On May 9, aninternational peace delegation led by the Irish Nobel prizewinner MaireadMaguire, in conjunction with quasi-governmental Mussalaha, met with the Syrianjustice Minister, Dr. Najm al-Ahmad, and presented a petition for the releaseof 72 non-violent activists, including Darwish, Gharir and Zaitani. Dr.al-Ahmad announced in his meeting with the delegation that the government hadin principle approved the release of all the prisoners on the list, pendingreview of their cases. The organizations urge the relevant authorities tofollow through with this commitment and release the detainees.

Co-signing organizations inalphabetical order:

1. Alkarama Foundation

2. Amnesty International (AI)

3. Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)

4. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)

5. Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

6. Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN)

7. Free Press Unlimited

8. Front Line Defenders

9. Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)

10. Human Rights Watch (HRW)

11. HumanistInstitute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos)

12. IKV Pax Christi

13. International Media Support (IMS)

14. Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)

15. PEN International

16. ReportersWithout Borders (RSF)

17. SKeyesCenter for Media and Cultural Freedom

18. SyrianCenter for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM)

19. The Observatory for the Protectionof Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federationfor Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)