The exceptional Supreme State Security Court (SSSC) in Damascus sentenced three Kurdish detainees to prison, on Sunday 27/9/2009, accusing them of being affiliated to a banned political society seeking to partition Syrian land and annexing it to a foreign country. Detainees Cameron Khalil Mohammed and Inayat Abdul Aziz Khana were sentenced to eight years in prison, and Mustafa Rasheed Zalfu was sentenced to six years imprisonment.

The Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) considers the sentences issued by the SSSC as unlawful and unconstitutional due to their conflict with the Syrian constitution and the general freedoms stated within it. In addition, the sentences are instructed by the security apparatus and intelligence, and do not enjoy any independence due to stemming from a court which does not follow the measures put in for fair and just courts, and depend instead on evidence extracted under torture and inhumane treatment, to condemn the detainees.

SHRC therefore, calls for the abolishment of the SSSC and to cancel all sentences issued from it against the abovementioned citizens. In the case of any unlawful activity having taken place then the detainees should be transferred to a fair court in which they enjoy their freedoms and have the right to defend themselves. SHRC also calls for all arbitrary and repressive arrests to stop, and to open the door to freedoms in Syria, as stated in the Syrian Constitution.

Syrian Human Rights Committee
29/9/2009