Damascus - The Syrian State Security Court has sentenced
three human rights activists to jail terms of between two and seven
years on charges of affiliating with a banned organization, a human
rights group said Monday.
The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria (NOHR) said
in a statement that 29-year-old Anwar Hussein and Mohammad Mulqi, a
university student arrested two years ago, were charged with
cooperating with a secret organization aiming to change the country's
social and economic structure, and with attempting to weaken national
feeling.
Hussein was sentenced to seven years in prison, Mulqi to six.
A third man, Omar al-Mutlaq was sentenced to two years in prison
on charges of fomenting sectarian riots.
There was no immediate confirmation from Syrian officials, who
usually do not comment on domestic security matters, including
detentions and activists' trials. It is human rights groups that
usually inform the public about such incidents.
The NOHR called for the abrogation of the Security Court, which
was set up in line with Syria's 1963 emergency law. Decisions by the
court cannot be appealed, and cases are often heard by military
personnel rather than civilian judges.
President Bashar Assad has freed hundreds of political prisoners
since coming to power in 2000 but has also clamped down on critics
of his government.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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