Sunday, October 24, 2010

Kurds in court for protesting against Decree 49

October 23, 2010 by sks

According to Kurdish Organization for Defending Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria – DAD, the individual military judge sitting in Qamishli city heard case no. 5641 of 2010 on 23 October 2010. He questioned the four Kurdish citizens from Hasaka province on the grounds that they were accused of joining a five minute protest against Decree 49 of 2008, which had been organised by a group of Kurdish parties in Syria on 10 September 2010, two years after it came into effect. The men were released. They are:
Luqman Hussein Ibrahim.
Salah Saeed Sheikhmous.
Abdul Ghafoor Hussein Hussein.
Saad Furman al-Hassan
The case is coming back to court on 31 October 2010. They are charged under Article 335 of the Syrian Penal Code:
Article 335
Anyone who yells inflammatory slogans or shows symbols intended to threaten public safety in a gathering that does not have the character of a private gathering, regardless of its intention, purpose, the number of those invited, the number of participants, or the location of the gathering, will be condemned to prison for between one month and one year, and fined 100 liras. The same penalty will apply to anyone who behaves similarly in a public place or in a place that is accessible or visible to the public, as well as to anyone who participates in riots of any kind.
These four men were told to report to the State Security Branch in Qamishli city at 9.30am on Tuesday 14 September 2010, and then disappeared. They were detained and handed to the Political Security branch in Hassaka, and were then transferred to a military judge in Qamishli city.
Kurdish Organization for Defending Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria – DAD welcomes their release and return to their families. DAD calls upon the Syrian authorities to halt unfair trials and to abolish the special courts due to the lack of international standards for fair trials; to release of all prisoners and detainees imprisoned for their work, ideas and opinions; to refrain from arbitrary detention, through the abolition of the State of Emergency; to release democratic freedoms, and to issue modern law that regulates political and civic life in Syria.

23 October 2010

Previous report:

http://supportkurds.org/news/four-kurds-disappear-after-reporting-to-state-security-in-qamishli