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Trial of Kurds in Syria likely to be a
'parody of justice': Amnesty International
16.12.2009
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December 16, 2009
NEW YORK, — Amnesty International
called for Syria's Supreme State Security Court (SSSC)
to be abolished as the trial of five members of the
Kurdish minority resumed on Tuesday.
"The trial is likely to be a parody of justice as
the SSSC has shown itself to be grossly
unsatisfactory as a court of law," said Malcolm
Smart, Director of Amnesty International's Middle
East and North Africa Programme. "It is neither
independent nor impartial and it does not operate in
accordance with international standards of fair
trial. It should be abolished without further ado." |
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The five Kurds scheduled
to appear before the SSSC on Tuesday are accused of
belonging to the Democratic Union Party (PYD), an
unauthorized political party said to identify with
Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). They are
also accused of using violence at a rally held on 15
February 2008 in Aleppo to mark the anniversary of
the arrest of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan by the
Turkish authorities.
The five defendants are reported to have been held
incommunicado for long periods following their
arrests in 2008. Amnesty International has learnt
that at least one defendant did not see his family
for one year after being taken into detention.
Other information about their conditions of
detention is not available because the families have
been afraid to speak to human rights organizations,
apparently for fear that the defendants will receive
harsher sentences if they do.
Amnesty International said it knows that Kurdish
minority activists and other suspected critics and
opponents of the Syrian government have previously
been tortured and otherwise ill-treated during
months of incommunicado detention.
Defendants tried by the SSSC are frequently
convicted on the basis of "confessions" that the
security authorities say they made freely while held
in pre-trial detention. These are generally accepted
without question by the court even when defendants
allege that they were extracted under torture or
other ill-treatment and despite compelling evidence
that the security services use torture to get the
information they want.
Last month, at least another five Kurds were
sentenced by the SSSC to up to 12 years'
imprisonment for alleged affiliation with the PYD,
after being held in incommunicado detention for – in
most cases – at least 19 months. None of them had
access to legal counsel before their trial and even
during it they were permitted only very restricted
contact with their lawyers.
Given the long-standing pattern of torture and other
ill-treatment of detainees in Syria, all five are
believed to have been subjected to such abuses. The
mother of one of the five is reported to have
overheard one guard tell another that her son was
being subjected to the "flying carpet" torture
method,www.ekurd.netin
which the victim's hands and feet are strapped to a
piece of wood and he is then beaten and kicked.
"The SSSC has shown no interest in upholding
defendants' rights to defence and to fair trial,"
said Malcolm Smart. "It has failed to order
investigations into torture allegations or to stand
up to the security authorities, and it has lost all
credibility. It should be closed down and those
accused of political and other crimes should be
guaranteed fair trials and protected from torture
and other abuse."
The five Kurds on trial are Monzer Resho, aged 16 at
the time of his arrest in 2008, Gewan Mohammed
Ahmed, Hassan Khalil Qiddo, Khalil Dahli and Mannan
Ahmed Sido.
Copyright,
respective author or news agency, amnesty org
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