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Syria security court sentences Kurdish
dissidents for separatism
5.2.2008 |
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February 5, 2008
Qamishlo, Syrian Kurdistan,-- A Syrian court
has sentenced four Kurds to prison terms of up to 10
years on charges of seeking to annex parts of the
country to a separate state, a human rights group
said on Monday.
"Hamid Suleiman Mohammed and Adnan Muwaymesh were
jailed for 10 years and Ibrahim Haj Yussef and Ahmed
Hassan Habash for seven,"www.ekurd.net
the National
Organisation for Human Rights in Syria said in a
statement.
The state security court convicted the four of
"seeking through their actions, plans or writings to
break away areas of Syrian territory so that they
can be annexed to an independent state."
The four were arrested in March 2006 after taking
part in a demonstration in the town of Afrin, north
of Syria's second city of Aleppo, on the eve of
celebrations for the Kurdish new year holiday of
Newroz.
They were originally accused of attacking a security
force patrol in the town, which lies in the heavily
Kurdish region of Kurd Dagh, the rights group said.
The state security court also sentenced two
suspected Sunni Islamists to two-year jail terms for
"inciting communal and ethnic tensions."
Both Hassan al-Jabiri and Abdel Razzaq Trabulsi were
released on time served, the watchdog said.
The use of the state security court to try
dissidents has drawn repeated criticism from Syrian
human rights groups.
Established under the country's 45-year-old state of
emergency, the court's judgements are final and
cannot be appealed.
The Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights
called on the authorities to get rid of the court
and "end the problem of political prisoners by
releasing all of them."
AFP
** Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria
making up 10% of the country's population i.e. about
two million.
Kurds in Syria often speak Kurdish in public,
unless all those present do not. Kurdish human
rights activists are mistreated and persecuted. No
political parties are allowed for any group, Kurdish
or otherwise.
Suppression of ethnic identity of
Kurds in Syria include: various bans on the use of
the Kurdish language; refusal to register children
with Kurdish names; replacement of Kurdish place
names with new names in Arabic; prohibition of
businesses that do not have Arabic names; not
permitting Kurdish private schools; and the
prohibition of books and other materials written in
Kurdish.
More about Kurds in Syria - (Kurdistan-Syria)
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