KurdistanObserver.com

Syria Arrests Key Kurdish Activist

DAMASCUS, Dec 21, 2006 (AFP) - Syrian authorities have arrested the deputy head of the banned Kurdish political party Yakiti, a human rights group said Thursday.

Mehieddin Sheikh Ali was taken into custody Wednesday evening in the northern city of Aleppo by two security officers, the National Organisation of Human Rights in Syria said in a statement.

"He was at a cafe in Aleppo in the company of a friend," said the rights body's head, Ammar Qorabi, adding that Aali was last seen being "taken away to an unknown destination".

Yakiti, also known as the Kurdish Democratic Union, was among several opposition parties that signed a declaration in Damascus in October 2005 calling for democratic change in the country.

In its statement, the human rights group said Sheikh Aali's arrest was fresh proof that the Syrian government's claims of an easing of the state of emergency -- imposed more than 40 years ago -- were "inexact".

"The National Organisation of Human Rights in Syria calls upon the authorities to immediately release Sheikh Aali and to stop using kidnapping as a means of arrest," it said.