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Syrian writer to spend 6 months in prison
8.6.2006
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DAMASCUS, Syria -
A Syrian military court ruled that a dissident
writer must serve six months in prison after
convicting him on charges that include insulting the
president, a human rights group said Wednesday.
Mohammad Ghanem, a journalist who edits a Web site
and advocates greater rights for Kurds in Syria, was
sentenced to a year in prison Tuesday, but the
military court commuted his sentence to six months,
said Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organization
for Human Rights in Syria.
Qurabi said in an e-mail to The Associated Press
that Ghanem was sentenced by a court in Raqqa
province, some 345 miles northeast of Damascus, the
capital.
Ghanem was convicted on charges of "insulting the
Syrian president, discrediting the Syrian government
and fomenting sectarian unrest," Qurabi said.
Ghanem has been publishing articles on an Arabic Web
site that have called for greater freedom for Kurds
in Syria and have criticized the ruling Baath Party.
Qurabi did not say why the sentence was commuted to
six months, but he condemned the punishment as part
of the "repression of human rights activists."
Syria's detention of more than 10 well-known writers
and human rights activists in recent months has been
met with international criticism.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists
criticized Ghanem's detention last month, saying the
move appeared aimed at silencing a dissident voice
who has written articles advocating the rights of
Syria's Kurdish minority.
The conviction also came as the government of
President Bashar Assad faces criticism from
opposition figures abroad, most recently at a
conference in London in which former Vice President
Abdul Halim Khaddam participated.
AP
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