The Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) has received the news that the detainee Mohammed Ali Derbak (72 years), detained on 27/1/2007, has passed away due to ill treatment in prison.

According to the information passed over to SHRC (which SHRC was unable to completely confirm due to the high secrecy practiced by Syrian apparatus), Derbak, who is from Banyas, suffered from a stroke in the Detention centre he was being kept in in Damascus last week due to the ill treatment he was being subjected to. He was taken to hospital, and it is thought that he died last Thursday after his health deteriorated.

Syrian Security forces arrested Derbaak due to a poem of his in which he criticized the “Shia”. Derbak wrote the poem when al-Jazeera channel revealed that Militias of al-Mahdi army had attacked Syrian refugees in Iraq and killed some of them.

Due to the fact that Derbak used a photocopier to copy his poem in a trading office, the owner of the bookshop Rami Rikhamiah was also arrested although he wasn’t in the bookshop at that time. Alaa’ Muhyideen, who also works in the bookshop and was present at the time that Derbaak copied his poem, was also arrested. What has happened to both men is unknown, although it is known that Rikhamiah is ill and in need to medicine. Whether he is receiving this medicine in prison or not is unknown.

It is also worthy to mention that Mohammed Ali Derbak’s son, Sami Derbaak, was recently trialled at the SSSC with five others on 27/2/2007, accused of trying to become members of the Muslim Brotherhood. They were sentenced to death according to law 49/1980, then their sentence was reduced to long prison terms.

SHRC had contacted the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria who confirmed that the citizens who had been trialled were not members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that the organization does not have any activities within Syria nor does it make links with people in Syria as long as law 49/1980 is in action as it doesn’t want to provide the Syrian authoritities with any excuse for arresting people.

SHRC calls upon the Syrian Authorities to reveal the fate of Mohammed Ali Derbaak and what happened to him after his health had deteriorated, and to either confirm or reject the news that he passed away. SHRC also stresses the importance of releasing the detainees held in Syrian Intelligence and Security Centres and to stop arresting citizens arbitrarily, and to stop subjecting them to torture and ill treatment.

Syrian Human Rights Committee
16/3/2007