Ibrahim Burro is released from prison in Syria

Kurdish Yekiti Party in Syria announced today that Ibrahim Burro has been released from prison in Syria. He was arrested in April 2009 and sentenced in October 2009 for belonging to a ‘secret organisation’. He was given a warm reception upon his release by people from his Party and leaders of other Kurdish political parties in Syria.

Fouad Aleko, Secretary of Kurdish Yekiti Party in Syria gave a speech condemning the facist policies of the Syrian Government that are used against the Kurdish population in Syria. He said that the methods used against the Kurds will not stop our movement and activities in working for Kurdish rights. Read more

Britain has been given a warning by Iran’s foreign minister that it will “get slapped in the mouth” if it does not “stop the nonsense”.

Manouchehr Mottaki responded after UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband hailed the “great courage” of Iranians who staged opposition protests on Sunday.

Iran says the clashes, which resulted in at least eight people being killed, were inspired and aided by the West.

The UK ambassador is being summoned by Iran to receive a formal complaint. Read more

Khalid Kanjo – deported from Germany, trial adjourned in Syria

The trial of Khaled Kanjo who was deported from Germany to Syria, was held today – Tuesday 29 December 2009 – before the Military Individual Judge Court, in Qamishli.

Khaled Kanjo has been charged with ‘broadcasting false news that would bring the Syrian State into disrepute’, in case number 3813/2009.

Read more

Sentencing without trial in Syria

The Executive Committee of the Democratic Union Party – PYD raises concerns about Seydou Rashid Ali, born in 1973 in the village Jabiliya near Afrin, who was arrested in Qamishli on 3 January 2009. He was sentenced by the Court to six years in prison, on the papers, in his absence and without representation. The prison authorities have informed him and his fellow detainees that this practice of sentencing without trial will be used in future. Read more

Detainees recently on hunger strike were tortured and forced to eat during their protest

The Executive Committee of the Democratic Union Party – PYD reports that detainees who were recently on hunger strike in Adra Prison, Damascus, Syria were tortured and forced to eat during their protest. Read more

Kurdish political leaders arrested in Syria

Kurdish Yekiti Party in Syria reports that Hasan Salih, Muhammed Mustafa and Marouf Mela Ahmed – the members of Political Committee of Kurdish Yekiti Party in Syria, and the political activist and artist Anwer Naso from Amouda, were arrested in Qamishli by Political Security forces on 26 December 2009.  The reason for their arrests is unknown.

There has been no direct contact with these men but they are now reported to be Adra Prison in Damascus.

28 December 2009

Letter to David Miliband re: arrest of more than 80 members of the Turkey’s Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).

The Rt Hon David Miliband MP
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH

24 December 2009

Dear Foreign Secretary,

Mass Arrest of BDP Party Members, Turkey

We write to express our grave concern at the detention over the past 24 hours of more than 80 members of the Turkey’s Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). The detentions follow the banning on 11 December of Turkey’s largest pro-Kurdish party, the DTP (Democratic Society Party), and come at a critical moment in efforts by the Kurdish leadership to engage with  the Government of Turkey in a dialogue aimed at a peaceful resolution of  the Kurdish question. We urge you to protest the detentions and to use your good offices to press for those detained to be released. Read more

Kurdish child of 15 and man arrested, detained and disappeared in Syria

According to Syrian Committee for Human Rights – MAD, Kurdish teenager Shahab Othman, known as Iden, born 15 April 1994, aged 15 years old was arrested and detained after being summoned by Political Security on 1 August 2009. He is a student from Derbazin Voqani village, in the Kobani area.  No-one has seen him since that date and his whereabouts remain unknown.

On 17 November 2009 Aziz Khalil Abdi was arrested by Political Security while he was working. His whereabouts are still unknown, and there is no information about why he was arrested.

Syrian Committee for Human Rights – MAD views with grave concern the increasing incidents of arrest without warrants, the disappearance of detainees within the prison system of Syria, and the lack of information about the reason for the arrests. Shahab is just a child. The families of these detainees are also punished by the withholding of this information, and have the right to know where these people are and what they are accused of. Shahab Othman and Aziz Khalil Abdi should be released immediately if they have not committed a crime.

Syrian Committee for Human Rights – MAD calls on the Syrian Government to restore the basic human rights of these people, to stop arbitrary arrests, to release all political prisoners, and to abolish the State of Emergency and the martial law that is in operation.

Syrian Committee for Human Rights –MAD

23 December 2009

Ez al-Din Morrow – the latest Kurdish conscript to die in Syria

According to Syrian Committee for Human Rights – MAD, Ez al-Din Morrow, a conscript serving with 110 Brigade based in al-Qatifa near Damascus, died whilst on military training. His family was informed of his death on 19 December 2009 by his army superiors who advised them to collect his body. Ez al-Din Morrow is from Berbarzin village in the Kobani area. He is married with a child. He had completed nine months of his mandatory military service.

MAD comments that there has been a rapid increase recently in the number of Kurdish conscripts who have died whilst serving in the army and Kurdish people are suspicious about how they died. It is becoming more difficult to believe the official version of the cause of death, especially when the bodies show signs of torture.

MAD calls for an inquiry into these deaths.

Syrian Committee for Human Rights – MAD

22 December 2009

Amnesty International Syria: Kurdish lawyer detained, risks torture

Kurdish lawyer Mustafa Ismail was detained on 12 December, and has been held incommunicado since then. He is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

Mustafa Ismail, who writes about the treatment of Kurds in Syria and Turkey for a number of foreign-based websites, was detained when he went to the Air Force Security Branch in the northern city of Aleppo, in response to an order from the local security office in his home town of Ain Arab. His family went to the same Air Force Security Branch on 17 December to find out what had happened to him, but they were told that he was not there and they were ordered to leave. Read more

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