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Syria: Relatives of political prisoners
ordered no to meet
25.7.2005
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Damascus, 25 July
(AKI) - Syrian police have ordered members of a
newly-formed support group made up of relatives of
political prisoners not to meet, without first
obtaining official permission to do so.
The Commission of Relatives of Prisoners of Opinion
and of Conscience (CRPOC) was holding its inaugural
meeting on Monday when police surrounded the
building where the launch was being held, in the
town of Dariya near the capital Damascus.
The police then peacefully broke up the meeting, but
first warned one of the group's leaders, Abu Haytham
al-Hamawi, not to organise another one without the
authorities' consent.
Syria's interior minister, Ghazi Kanaan, recently
stated that there are no political prisoners held in
Syrian jails, a claim disputed by the CRPOC, which
says its members represent more than 500 such
detainees.
According to the support group, some 600 political
prisoners are held in Syria. Of these, 200 were
arrested this year alone, "only for having exercised
their basic rights, such as freedom of opinion and
expression," the group said in a statement, in which
authorities are accused of "preventing relatives
from visiting the detainees, denying them access to
lawyers and even refusing to disclose where they are
being jailed."
At its launch, the CRPOC released a list containing
the names of 533 people it says are political
prisoners.
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