{"id":336,"date":"2011-08-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-24T00:00:00","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=336","title":{"rendered":"Syrian journalist at risk of torture"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nSyrian
\njournalist at risk of torture<\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n24 August
\n2011<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nJournalists
\nand activists in Syria
\nwho pass on information about the country’s unrest to the media face torture
\nand other ill-treatment, Amnesty International said today, as one journalist
\nstarted his second week in incommunicado detention.<\/p>\n

‘Adel Walid Kharsa was arrested by security forces in his hometown of Hama on 17 August,
\nseemingly in connection with his news reports on the protests.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International has information indicating that other detainees have been
\ntortured to find out whether they have given news about events in Syria to
\nregional and international media.<\/p>\n

"‘Adel Walid Kharsa appears to have been arrested for his work reporting
\non the popular protests and the government’s brutal security crackdown in Hama,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy
\nDirector for the Middle East and North Africa.<\/p>\n

“If this is the case then he is a prisoner of conscience and should be released
\nimmediately and unconditionally.<\/p>\n

“The authorities must also ensure that ‘Adel is protected from torture and
\nother ill-treatment, allowed immediate contact with his family and a lawyer of
\nhis choice, and given any medical attention he needs.”<\/p>\n

‘Adel, 25, left Syria last
\nyear to look for work in the United
\nArab Emirates. He was so overwhelmed by what
\nwas happening in his country that he returned in June and began reporting on
\nthe violence and killings he witnessed in Hama.<\/p>\n

Despite taking precautions by making his news reports anonymously by phone,
\n‘Adel’s identity became known to Syrian security officials.<\/p>\n

He received calls on his cell phone from security officers urging him to
\n“repent” and to give himself in to the authorities. He refused and went into
\nhiding.<\/p>\n

At 5am on 17 August, Kharsa was arrested by security forces at the house where
\nhe was hiding. He has since been held incommunicado.<\/p>\n

Syrian security forces have been carrying out widespread arrests in response to
\nmass protests calling for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, which began
\nin March.<\/p>\n

The arrests have targeted people perceived to have organized or openly supported
\nthose protests, whether in public gatherings, in the media or on the internet.<\/p>\n

One such case is 28-year-old “Wael” (not his real name), who was detained in
\nMay and held for three weeks accused of filming demonstrations with his cell
\nphone in his hometown of Tell Kalakh, south of the western city of Homs. He told Amnesty
\nInternational:<\/p>\n

“I was taken to an interrogator… He accused me of being a correspondent for
\nAl Jazeera, the BBC and [Gulf-based] Wesal channels. It was true that I filmed
\nevents with my cell phone but I did not send them to any channel.”<\/p>\n

“Wael” said he was forced into a stress position known as the shabah (ghost) by
\nbeing tied by the wrists to a bar high enough off the ground that he was forced
\nto stand on tiptoes for six hours. He said he was also splashed with water and
\nelectrocuted.<\/p>\n

“Having decided to return to Syria
\nto cover the uprising, ‘Adel Walid Kharsa has already lost his freedom. He,
\nlike many detained during the regime’s crackdown, is now at risk of acts of
\nbrutality while in the hands of the authorities,” said Philip Luther.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nhttp:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/news-and-updates\/syrian-journalist-risk-torture-2011-08-24<\/a><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n24 August
\n2011<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nJournalists
\nand activists in Syria
\nwho pass on information about the country’s unrest to the media face torture
\nand other ill-treatment, Amnesty International said today, as one journalist
\nstarted his second week in incommunicado detention.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}