August 9, 2012<\/p>\n
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), has received new information and requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Syria<\/strong>.<\/p>\n New information: <\/strong><\/p>\n The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the imminent transfer of Mr. Mazen Darwish<\/strong>, President of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), to a secret Field Court military tribunal, as well as about his ongoing detention, together with four of his colleagues, blogger Hussein Ghrer<\/strong>, and Messrs. Abdelrahman Hamada<\/strong>, Mansour Al Omari<\/strong> and Hani Zetani<\/strong>. The Observatory was also informed of the ongoing judicial harassment of Messrs. Bassam Al-Ahmad, Joan Farso, Ayham Ghazzoul, Mss. Yara Bader, Razan Ghazzawi, Mayadah Khaleel and Sana Zetani, SCM staff members, as well as of Ms. Hanadi Zahlout, arrested as he was visiting the centre (see background information).<\/strong><\/p>\n According to the information received, on August 6, 2012, the Air Force Intelligence (AFI) sent a letter to the Military Justice in Damascus, informing them that the SCM was conducting its activities without any license and that they were preparing for Mr. Mazen Darwish to be transferred to the Field Court, a secret military tribunal that operates in camera, excluding even the detainee’s lawyers.<\/p>\n Previously, the fourth military judge in Damascus had requested the AFI to provide information to the court about the SCM’s license and Mr. Darwish’s whereabouts, in view of his appearance as a general witness in another case involving eight other people arrested at the SCM on February 16, 2012. They were: Messrs. Bassam Al-Ahmad, Joan Farso, Ayham Ghazzoul, and Mss. Yara Bader, Razan Ghazzawi, Mayadah Khaleel, Sana Zetani and Hanadi Zahlout<\/strong>. However, their trial has been postponed on several occasions, most recently to August 6, 2012, because the AFI has failed to answer the requests of the military judge. Following the above-mentioned letter he received from the AFI, the judge then decided to suspend Mr. Darwish as a witness in that trial until the next defence session, which was scheduled to August 29, 2012. In other terms, Mr. Mazen Darwish’s fate is now left to the discretion of the Field Court.<\/p>\n The Observatory also remains concerned with the fact that the the fate of Mr. Mazen Darwish, as well as four of his colleagues, Messrs. Hussein Ghrer, Abdelrahman Hamada, Mansour Al Omari and Hani Zetani, remains unknown. It was recently reported that Mr. Ghareer, who has been on hunger strike for almost one month, would be transferred to the AFI headquarters in Tahrer Square, while it is believed that Mr. Darwish and his three other colleagues have been transferred to the headquarters of the Fourth Division in Mazzeh. Fears remain about their physical and psychological integrity, since they have reportedly been subjected to torture and ill-treatment in detention.<\/p>\n The Observatory expresses its deepest concern about Mr. Mazen Darwish’s upcoming transfer to a secret Field Court military tribunal. The fact that it operates in camera violates international standards regarding fair trial and due process. The Observatory further denounces Mr. Mazen’s ongoing arbitrary detention, as well as that of his 12 colleagues and a visitor of the SCM.<\/p>\n The Observatory calls on the Syrian authorities to immediately and unconditionally put an end to the judicial harassment of Mr. Darwish, as well as of his four colleagues, as it seems to merely aim at disrupting and sanctioning their human rights activities, and to release them immediately and unconditionally.<\/p>\n