Authorities Face Demands to Free Dissidents

A number of Syrian opinion articles said that the Syrian authorities should free prisoners of conscience after their reported role in mediating the release of Frenchwoman Clotilde Reiss in Iran.



If Syria intervened to free Reiss, who was held in a Tehran prison, why does the government not ask its strategic ally Turkey to help free Syrian prisoners detained in Israel, wrote Massoud Akko in an August 23 opinion article on the website of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.



Akko also asked why the Syrian authorities do not free Riad Seif, a prominent promoter of democracy in Syria who is serving a two-and-a-half year jail sentence, in view of his deteriorating health.



Another opinion piece posted the same day by the website all4Syria asked why the Syrian authorities were incapable of “forgiving” dissidents inside the country while they could excuse a Lebanese foe like the Druze politician Walid Jumblatt.



Jumblatt has been a leading Lebanese critic of Damascus in recent years and had accused the Syrian regime of involvement in assassinations and instability in the country. However, Jumblatt has distanced himself recently from hostile positions against Syria and appears to be trying to renew contacts with Syrian officials.



The author’s article, Obay Hassan, said that even accepting that the Syrian prisoners of conscience were “mistaken”, their faults could not possibly be as serious as those committed by Jumblatt against the Syrian leadership and people.



The Syrian authorities should release all political dissidents before being reconciled with Jumblatt, especially as they had not “weakened national sentiment” – a common accusation against prisoners of conscience - as much as Jumblatt has done.