{"id":266,"date":"2011-06-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/?p=266","title":{"rendered":"Syria: Amnesty must be completed and accompanied by immediate End to Killings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nSyria: Amnesty must be completed and accompanied by
\nimmediate End to Killings<\/strong>
\nCopenhagen – 3 June 2011: While the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network<\/a> (EMHRN) welcomes
\nthe Legislative Decree No. 61 of May 30 granting “general amnesty for crimes
\ncommitted before 31 May 2011”, it reiterates its deepest concern as for the
\nfate of hundreds of prisoners of conscience who remain in detention as well as
\nfor persistent threats on human rights activists and peaceful protestors in the
\ncountry.
\n“The Syrian authorities must immediately release all prisoners of conscience
\nincluding all persons arbitrarily detained due to their participation in
\npeaceful demonstrations”, EMHRN executive director Marc Schade Poulsen said
\ntoday “It must also halt the use of lethal force and torture against
\ndemonstrators and the Syrian citizens”.
\nThe EMHRN warmly welcomes the liberation of human rights lawyer Mohannad Al
\nHassani, president of the Human Rights Organization in Syria “Sawassyah” and
\nlawyer Ismail Abdi (board member of EMHRN member organization CDF), as well as
\nseveral prominent pro-Democracy activists including Mahmoud Issa, a leader of the
\nCommunist Labor party and Mechaal Tammo, member of the political bureau of the
\nKurdish Future party. On 23 May, the Syrian authorities has released human
\nrights lawyer Anouar Al Bunni after he finished his term.   
\n 
\nThe Amnesty only pardons half penalties for felonies, which will leave a number
\nof political detainees in prison. This situation includes the cases of well
\nknown rights activists, including physician Kamal Al Labwani, the journalist
\nAli Abdallah, as well as the young female blogger Tal Al Malouhi. The EMHRN
\nalso stresses that the decree did not cover cases of persons arrested in
\nrelation to the movement of protest such as pro-democracy activists Najati
\nTayara or human rights lawyer Abdallah Khalil.  
\nThe EMHRN recalls that most human rights activists in the country are compelled
\nto hide because of threats from state security apparatus, which systematically
\nraid their houses, sometimes arresting members of their family to force
\nactivists to surrender. Wael Hamada, the husband of human rights lawyer Razan
\nZaitouneh, and his brother Abdulrahman are held incommunicado since their
\narrest respectively on 12 May and 30 April. The EMHRN fears they may be
\ntortured.     
\nThe Amnesty also applies to members of Muslim Brotherhood sentenced on the
\nbasis of law 1980\/49. However the EMHRN reminds that this law, which punishes
\nwith death penalty members of the Muslim Brotherhood, remains in force. It also
\nregrets that the Amnesty decree excludes members of the Brotherhood in exile.
\n 
\nThe EMHRN considers that while the amnesty is a positive measure as such, it
\ncomes late as a reaction to the growing movement of peaceful protest in the
\ncountry and is insufficient.
\nThe EMHRN urges the Syrian authorities to ensure that:
\n–  the shooting of peaceful protestors stops immediately;
\n–  army units are withdrawn from the cities immediately;
\n–  the amnesty includes all political detainees without exception;
\n– the amnesty is accompanied by the end of arbitrary detentions, ill treatments
\nand acts of torture  
\nThe EMHRN urges the Syrian authorities to conduct genuine reforms that allow
\nfor the respect of freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of
\nassembly, and recalls that those who are responsible of the grave, widespread,
\nand systemic human rights violations in Syria should be brought before
\nindependent and impartial jurisdictions.
\nFor more information, please contact:
\nHenriette Irminger Sonne, +45 30828337 ; Shaima Abou Alkheir: +20
\n101077207   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Syria: Amnesty must be completed and accompanied by
\nimmediate End to Killings<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n Copenhagen – 3 June 2011: While the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network<\/a> (EMHRN) welcomes
\n the Legislative Decree No. 61 of May 30 granting “general amnesty for crimes
\n committed before 31 May 2011”, it reiterates its deepest concern as for the
\n fate of hundreds of prisoners of conscience who remain in detention as well as
\n for persistent threats on human rights activists and peaceful protestors in the
\n country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}