KurdistanObserver.com

Syria Sentences Eight Dissidents To Prison: Lawyer

DAMASCUS, March 19, 2006 (AFP)  Syria's state security court on Sunday sentenced six Kurds to prison terms on charges of either separatism or belonging to illegal groups, human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni said.

The same court also sentenced two more non-Kurdish men to lengthy jail terms on charges of aiming to harm the state's reputation, the lawyer said.

Three of the Kurds were members of the Democratic Union Party, a banned Kurdish political group. They received two-and-a-half-year terms for belonging to a "secret organization," Bunni said.

Two other Kurds were sentenced to seven years each for seeking to "annex part of (Syrian) territory." A third man received six months on the same charge.

Damascus views the expression of Kurdish language and culture as a threat to national unity and Kurds are frequently arrested for alleged separatism.

The Kurdish population in Syria is estimated at 1.5 million, about nine percent of the population.

Meanwhile, a non-Kurdish Syrian national was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for aiming to "modify society and weaken national pride."

A man of Palestinian-Jordanian origin was sentenced to three years in prison followed by deportation from Syria for "harming the image of the state," Bunni said.

And two students were arrested Saturday for wanting to "form a democratic gathering of youths to discuss young people's problems," Bunni said.

At least eight students have been arrested until now for wanting to form a political group.

Bunni, who heads the Syrian Center for Judicial Studies, called on authorities to "halt policies that aim to terrorize society and activists by punishing any action and using as recourse the state security court which is an illegal court."

A separate statement signed by five human rights groups called on the government to "immediately free all political detainees in Syrian jails and take urgent and serious measure to introduce democracy."

The text also asked for the "lifting of all restrictions on free expression and on the formation of political parties and civil society groups."

Syria's emergency laws, in effect since the Baath party took power in 1963, have come under regular fire from rights advocates because the laws limit free expression, permit state security courts and so-called "arbitrary arrests."

Despite pledges last year by the regime to allow political parties, the Baath party said those based on an "ethnic, religious or regional basis" would not be allowed.