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Syria: Kurdish writer-activist 'to stand
trial'
27.8.2008 |
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August 27, 2008
Damascus, Syria, —
Military intelligence services have ordered Syrian
Kurdish writer and prominent rights activist Mashaal
al-Tammu to stand trial, Syria's Human Rights
Observatory reported.
It quoted human rights campaigners saying they saw
al-Tammu entering a Damascus courthouse on Tuesday.
He had not been seen since he vanished on 15 August
after leaving the northern Syrian city of Kubani,www.ekurd.net
bound for Damascus.
Although Al-Tammu's car was found close to the armed
forces' headquarters in the city of Aleppo, Syrian
security services denied claims by human rights
groups that they were involved in his disappearance.
Human rights lawyers are currently evaluating the
situation and trying to determine if al-Tammu has
been ordered to stand trial before a civilian or a
military court.
Tammu, 50, is the official spokesman for the Kurdish
Future opposition movement.
Freedom of expression remains tightly controlled in
Syria, and security forces have sweeping powers of
arrest and detention.
A total 1,500 people were arrested for political
reasons in 2007 and hundreds more who were arrested
in previous years remained in detention, according
to rights group Amnesty International's 2008 report.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
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** 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) From Wikipedia
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