Arrest of Mohamed Abdi Saadoun, member of the Political Committee of the Kurdish Azadi Party in Syria

Mohamed Abdi Saadoun, member of the Political Committee of the Kurdish Azadi Party in Syria, was called through the Education Department to go for questioning by the State Security department in Qamishli on Thursday, 20 May 2010.
He was born in 1960, and is a teacher in Deyrik. He is married with seven children. His whereabouts are unknown.

The organizations signing this statement consider that the arrests constitute a flagrant violation of fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Syrian Constitution and they constitute a violation of Syria’s commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by on 12 April 1969, and brought into effect on 23 March 1976, specifically Articles 9, 14, 19, 21 and 22.

We also call upon the Syrian authorities to immediately release Mohamed Abdi Sadoun, and all prisoners of conscience and expression in prisons and the detention system. We want arbitrary detention to stop as this is a crime against freedom and personal security, and call for the abolition of the state of emergency and martial law. We want to see laws that allow citizens to exercise their right to participate in the management of the country’s affairs and lifting of the ban on the activities of human rights organizations and associations.

We also call upon the Syrian government to implement the recommendations within the bodies of regional and international human rights treaties that it has signed up to, and fulfill its obligations under the international covenants on human rights.

21 May 2010

Kurdish Organization for Defending Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria – DAD
Human Rights Organization in Syria – MAF
Kurdish Committee for Human Rights in Syria – al-Rased