Activities: Lawyer, founder of HRAS, Head of the Damascus Centre for Legal Studies and President of the Committees for the Defence of Political Prisoners. At the time of his arrest, Anwar Al-Bunni was to be appointed Head of a European Union-funded centre for human rights training.

Arrest and trial: Al-Bunni was arrested in May 2006 after signing the Damascus-Beirut Declaration, a petition signed by more than 300 intellectuals and human rights defenders from Syria and Lebanon, calling for the improvement of the relationships between the two countries. On April 24, 2007, Al-Bunni was sentenced to five years imprisonment on a charge of “transferring false and exaggerated news that weaken national sentiments” (Article 286 of the Criminal Code).

Current situation: Since 2006, he is held in the Central Damascus Prison of Adra. His lawyers cannot visit him freely in prison.