Kurdish Leader Dies Following Release

A minority rights organisation in Germany has called on the Syrian government to explain the death of Osman Sulayman, a 61-year-old Kurdish ex-member of parliament who died shortly after being held in custody for weeks.



Kurdish rights workers in Aleppo believe that Sulayman died as a result of torture inflicted while he was in detention, according to a statement by the Germany-based Society for Threatened Peoples published on the Kurdish Media Website on February 21.



Sulayman was arrested in November 2007 in Ain al-Arab in Aleppo during a Kurdish protest against Turkish plans to invade northern Iraq. He was taken to al-Kendy Hospital and admitted there under a false name on January 18, and was subsequently released from al-Muslimiye prison on February 6. He died in hospital on February 19.



The Society for Threatened Peoples also appealed to German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to press for the release of 71-year-old Kurdish singer Eli Tico, who suffers from cardiac problems and has been detained since January 17. He has not been charged, and his whereabouts are unknown.