Mar 19, 2007, 10:47 GMT
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.
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