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Four Kurdish activists from the Democratic
Union Party are each sentenced to six years in
prison, in Syria
10.11.2009
By Khalaf Dahowd
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Syria jails four Kurds for banned party membership
November 10, 2009
DAMASCUS, Syria,
(ekurd.net), — The Syrian Human Rights Committee –
MAD – reports that the Supreme State Security Court
in Damascus at its session held on Sunday 8 November
2009, sentenced four Kurds each to six years in
prison on the basis of article 267 of the Syrian
Penal Code. They were convicted of belonging to
banned political party, the
Democratic Union Party.
"The State Security Court sentenced four Syrian
Kurds to six-year terms on Sunday for membership of
the banned Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and
for plotting to join a part of Syrian territory with
a foreign country," the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights said in a statement.
The London-based watchdog named the four as Nasser
Ahmed Mohammed, Fawaz Ali, Saud Chikhmus and
Abdelrahman Mustafa Mohammed. They were all arrested
either last year or early this year.
It called on the authorities to end the 46-year-old
state of emergency under which the state security
court operates. Its decisions cannot be appealed.
The Syrian authorities routinely accuse clandestine
Kurdish parties of separatism even when they
campaign for Kurdish cultural and linguistic rights
within Syrian borders.
More than 1.5 million Kurds live in Syria,
comprising nine percent of the population. They have
long sought official recognition of the Kurdish
language and culture.
In case number 157 of 2009:s
• Nasser Ahmed Mohammed, born 1987 in the Jawadia
area. He is a second year student at the Institute
of Medical Radiology. He was arrested on 6 August
2008 by Political Security in Damascus.
• Raed Fawaz Ali, born in Derbasieh was arrested on
19 July 2008.
At the same session on 8 November 2009, in case
number 179 of 2009:
• Saud Sheikhmous Ibrahim was arrested on 25 January
2009.
• Abdul Rahman Mustafa Mohamed, born 1974 in Afrin,
was arrested on 26 November 2008.
Trials in this court are not fair – there are no
Article 6 rights (European Convention on Human
Rights – right to a fair trial) in Syria –
defendants are not properly able to put their case,www.ekurd.netfalse
confessions are extracted under torture, judgements
are made under the State of Emergency that has
existed since 1963, and sentencing is very harsh.
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.
Nearly 2 million Kurds live in Syria, mainly in the
north bordering Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan region.
They comprise nine percent of the population and
have long sought official recognition of the Kurdish
language and their culture.
Future Movement advocates democracy and equal rights
for Syria's one million Kurdish minority. The
Kurdish language is not allowed to be taught in
schools and tens of thousands of Kurds were denied
citizenship after a 1960s census.
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.
International Support Kurds in Syria Association –SKS
– asks the international community to examine the
practices of the Supreme State Security Court and to
bring these injustices to the attention of the
Syrian Government before any other discussions take
place.
International Support Kurds in Syria Association –
SKS
Web: www.supportkurds.org
Email: info@supportkurds.org
Copyright © 2009 ekurd.net. All rights reserved
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