Cairo August 15, 2012

ANHRI Warns from conducting a secret military trail to the significant Syrian activist “Mazin Darwich”, in which the lawyers were not be allowed to appear.

Information was reported that the Air Force Intelligence sent a message to the military court in Damascus, in which he was committed to a field court; secret and exceptional court affiliated to the military court.

The reports indicts that the military courts asked the Air force intelligence to provide information to the court related to the Syrian center for media and freedom of expression and place of the manager of the center “Darwish”. He called him to testify in another case. The Air force intelligence replied the center practiced its work without the licenses required, and shall commit “Darwish” to the a field court, therefore, the hearing was adjourned in the case to August 29 and postponed to testify as witness to unknown period.

He is a journalist, member of the International Federation of the Journalists and the founder and the president of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression.

He worked as the deputy president of the International Institution for Cooperation and Support in Brussels and Member of the international office of Reports without Borders. The center, of which he is the head, one of the significant concerned organizations to monitor the media and the Internet in Syria. He has the capacity of a consultant to the Economic and Social Council in the United Nations.

He was arrested on February 16, 2012 with 15 persons in the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression in Damascus as they raid the headquarter of the center after it is being recognized as a place for bloggers, rights activists, Syrian activists and journalists.

Since arrest, there are no clear accusations pressed against him, his lawyer was not enable to communicate with him and the reports indicated the news related to torture and solitary confinement.

Darwish now is in prison; his health is deteriorating, banned from receiving visits and banned from medical care. He went on hunger strike more than once to protest against arrest.

ANHRI said “the arrest of Darwish, is not related to the law, but it is a punishment for him and the responsibles for the Center, as they play a pivotal role in scandalizing the serious violations for all human rights conducted by Al-Assad’s regime against the revolutionaries, at the same time, in which Al-Assad’s regime ban the work of the journalists and the foreign media in the country to black-out the violations conducted against humanity.

ANHRI added that “the deliberate mislead his defenders and not enabling them to defend him, is a clear breach for all the recognized principles of the fair trial guarantees as well as the determination to make the trail secret does not related by any means to fair trail”

ANHRI asserted the right of his defenders and his colleagues, to know where they are, contact them, attend the hearings and to empower them to defend Darwish and his colleagues.

ANHRI calls all concerned international organizations to defend freedom, to intervene for the release of “Darwish” and the detainees of the Syrian Center for media and freedom of expression, and drop all the charges against them, as well as the immediate release of all the political prisoners in the prisons of the Syrian regime.

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