Court Decision to Release Activists Ignored

Human rights groups have condemned the continued detention of two prominent human rights activists despite a court decision that they should be released early.



According to a statement issued by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Supreme Court issued a ruling on November 2 that dissident writer Michel Kilo and former political prisoner Mahmoud Issa should be freed.



On November 4, prosecutor Mohammed Marwan al-Loji appealed against that decision, under a special clause that allows the prosecution to do so. The court has not ruled on the prosecutor’s appeal, but human rights groups argued that under the law, the prisoners should be released because the Supreme Court decision stands.



The pro-government website All4Syria quoted a lawyer as saying that it was the first time in Syria’s judicial history that a Supreme Court decision had not been implemented.



In May 2007, Kilo and Issa were each sentenced to three years in prison for weakening national sentiment and inciting sectarian divisions.



Kilo was arrested in May 2006, shortly after signing the Beirut-Damascus Declaration which called on Syria to change its relationship with Lebanon. Issa, who also signed the declaration, was arrested in October that year.



The Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression said it was illegal to continue to detain Kilo and Issa in prison, and called on President Bashar al-Assad, as the head of the country’s supreme judicial council, to stop outside intervention in the work of the judiciary.



Official media did not report either the court decision to release the prisoners or the prosecutor’s appeal.