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The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
The Center for Prisoners' Aid
The Association for Democratic Development
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Syria human rights violations must be put on trial before Naissa is tried
26/7/2004
Egyptian human rights organisations will be observing the trial of the lawyer and human rights and reform activist Aktham Naissa, head of the Committees for the Defence of Democracy in Syria which begins today. Representatives of a number of international organisations will also attend the trial, including the Euro-Mediterranean Network and the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) who will be represented by Negad el-Boraii, head of the Association for Democratic Development and Hafez Abou Seada, Secretary General of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, respectively.
Organisations signing support for this statement state that Naissa's detention is a continuation of the Syrian Government's repressive and inhumane policy against human rights and democracy activists and defenders of the freedom of opinion and expression in Syria. The Government's aim is to prevent these individuals from exposing the crimes committed by security forces against the Syrian people and the corruption which runs rampant in the country.
Naissa, the founder member of the Committees for the Defence of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights in Syria was a political prisoner from 1991 - 1998 as a work in the defence of human rights. In 1992 he was sentenced to 9 years imprisonment after an unfair trial in the Supreme State Security Court. He was tortured and mistreated during his detention. Amnesty International organised several release campaigns for Naissa, and he was eventually released two years before his sentence was due to end. Since his release security forces have continually harassed Naissa as a result of his involvement in the Committees for the Defence of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights. In addition his family have been subject to threats; in 2003 security forces beat his mother in order to terrorise her. Naissa was re-detained in April after the Committees issued their annual report describing the gross violations and abuses of citizens' rights which have occurred in past years. His detention was also a response to the signature campaign organised by the Committees for an end to the State of Emergency and the release of political prisoners. As part of this campaign it organised a people's sit-in front of the Parliament. Security forces recently sent Naissa for trial before the Supreme State Security Court - which fails to observe even the most basic of fair trial standards, and whose verdicts are based on the Emergency Law and the tenets of the previous Socialist regime in Syria.
Signatory organisations to this announcement express their deep concern about the Syrian authorities' continual sending of Syria's most prominent human rights defenders for trial before the State Security Court, an exceptional Court. The Syrian authorities' ignoring of international and Arab calls for Naissa's immediate and unconditional release and their stubborn refusal to do so is merely an expression of the official Syrian attitude towards demands for reform and an end to corruption. It is evidence of their rejection of the Syrian people's aspirations for democracy and an improvement in the deteriorating human rights situation in the country.
The signatories are also worried about the absence of any guarantees for a fair trial, especially since the Union of Syrian Lawyers refuses to make use of the mandate given to representatives of international and Egyptian organisations permitting them to plead for Naissa in court.
It is well known that the charges Naissa is facing are based on unjust exceptional laws used by the Syrian authorities to contain its opponents and activists for democracy and human rights. Naissa is accused of spreading information which damages Syria's reputation abroad and undermines the standing of the Syrian state and the Baath Party and of working towards wrecking the principles of the revolution!
Signatories to this statement affirm that the detention of reform and human rights activists and the deprivation of their right to a fair trial constitute a greater threat to Syria's reputation and tarnish its human rights record more than the spurious charges levied against Naissa. Annulment of unjust laws that criminalise criticism of government policies, the Baath Party and the ruling regime is the first step towards an improvement of the human rights record in Syria.
Signatories call on all international human rights groups and supporters to pledge solidarity with Naissa, a prominent rights defender, and launch a wide-reaching campaign to put an end to this farce of a trial and secure Naissa's immediate release. They must lend their support to the calls for justice which led to his imprisonment. At the forefront of these demands is an end to the State of Emergency in force for more than 40 years and the construction of serious programme of political and democratic reform in Syria.
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