Cairo: 16/8/2004

A great victory for human rights movement

The Syrian Emergency Court releases Aktham Ne'eisa

The signatory organizations on this press release express their satisfaction to issuing the decision of the High State Security Court in Syria to release on bail the prominent lawyer Aktham Ne'eisa the herald of reform and head of defense committees for human rights in Syria.

It is known that the continuation of the imprisonment of the patriot Aktham aroused many fears on his life because of his deteriorated health conditions especially after going on open hunger strike as a protest against his unjust trial before exceptional court on many suspicions that are worth 15 years in prison.

The signatory organizations on this press release welcome this step and appeal to the Syrian authorities:

First: abolishing accusations attributed to Aktham Ne'eisa and abolishing the filed case against him that depend on exceptional legislative texts that criminalize the opinion and expression and the right of citizens to assemble and peaceful protest and abolishing any legal traces against Aktham's right arranged by the procedures of the court.

Second: taking the immediate procedures to guarantee the unstipulated release for all prisoners and detainees because of their opinions and practices of their rights to peaceful expression and exchanging information. On their front, the thinker and the economist Dr. Aaref Dalila and the members of the parliament Ma'moun Al Hemdy, Reyad Seif and Habib Eisa the lawyer and spokesman of Gamal Al Atasy club and members of surviving civil society committees the engineer Fawwaz Tallo, Dr. Walid Al Beny and the well-known writer and researcher Habib Al Saleh and others.

The Egyptian Organization For Human Rights

Cairo Institute For Human Rights Studies

Human Rights Association For The Assistance Of Prisoners

Organization Of Democracy Development