The blogger Tal Al-Mallouhi was arrested on 27/12/2009, almost two months after her 18th birthday and before sitting her baccalaureate exams, and is still in custody today.
According to the official version provided by Bushra Kanfani- director of foreign media in the Syrian Foreign Ministry on 23/02/2011- to a group of reporters and foreign media; Tal was recruited by an Austrian officer working with peacekeeping forces, whom she met in Al-Quneitra. The officer knew Tal since she was 15 years of age, and recruited her to take part in espionage activities in favour of the United States!
In February 2011, the State Security Court sentenced Tal Al-Mallouhi to five years of imprisonment on the grounds of disclosing information that should be kept undisclosed from a foreign state. However, the court did not clarify what information was possessed by a child which would detriment the security of the state!
During the past three years, several reports were received on the possibility of the release of the blogger Tal Al-Mallouhi in presidential pardons, or in prisoner exchange deals, however Tal remains in custody and has not been included in the any of these decisions or exchange trades. The most recent of these reports was when Tal was named on the list of detainees released on 24/10/2013, under the exchange deal with the Lebanese kidnappers, when in fact Tal Al-Mallouhi is yet to be released.
The Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) points out that the detainee Tal Al-Mallouhi was accused of disclosing information harmful to the interest of state security when she was a child, despite the fact that she had no specific access to viewing confidential information in any form. SHRC also confirms that Tal did not receive fair procedures in the arrest and trial and was trailed in a court which lacked the most basic fair trial standards. The Committee calls on international organizations to place utmost importance on the prisoners of conscience in Syria, where tens of thousands languish inside regime prisons in inhumane conditions, exposed to the worst form of torture known to mankind.