Far From Justice - Human Rights Watch

In subsequent years, the SSSC has remained one of the pillars of repression in Syria underPresident Bashar al-Asad. However, as the government’s perceived enemies have changed,so has the profile of the defendants.C. Profile of Current Defendants before the SSSCThe largest group of defendants before the SSSC in the last three years can broadly becategorized as “Islamists” accused by the Syrian authorities of espousing radical ideasabout establishing an Islamic state in Syria or wanting to fight in Iraq. A review of trialobservation notes by diplomats attending the SSSC and statements issued by Syrian lawyersand human rights groups shows that of the 237 individuals sentenced by the SSSC betweenJanuary 2007 and June 2008, the SSSC described in its proceedings at least 106 of them asbeings “salafis,” “belonging to a salafi jihadist movement,” “adopting salafi takfiri thought,”or “belonging to Hezb al-Tahrir.” 65The increase in trials of Islamists corresponds to a broader crackdown on Islamists in Syriastarting in 2004 following a series of attacks on Syrian soil. 66 The first attack occurred onApril 27, 2004 when a bomb was planted near an abandoned UN building in the upmarketMezzeh neighborhood of Damascus leading to a shootout between Syrian security forcesand suspected Islamic militants, leaving dead one bystander, one police officer, and two ofthe presumed attackers. 67 On June 2, 2006, the security forces clashed with gunmen whom65 Salafis strive to imitate and replicate the Islam of the Prophet’s generation (al-salaf al-salih), aiming to rid Islamic practiceof the innovations accrued over centuries of human practice. They aspire to follow the literal meanings of Qur’anic injunctionsIssues of salafi beliefs frequently involve questions of ritual and everyday life, but more important are questions involvingsocial norms and laws derived from the Prophet Muhammad’s reported words and deeds. According to Gilles Kepel, anacademic expert on Islamist movements, “the term ‘takfir’ “derives from the word kufr (impiety) and it means that one who is,or claims to be a Muslim is declared to be impure: by takfir he is excommunicated in the eyes of the Community of the Faithful.For those who interpret Islamic law literally and rigorously, one who is impious to this extent can no longer benefit from theprotection of law.” Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard UniversityPress, 2002), p. 31. Hezb al-Tahrir is an international pan-Islamist Sunni political party whose goal is to combine all Muslimcountries in a unitary Islamic state or caliphate, ruled by Islamic law and with a caliph head of state. For more informationabout Islamic fundamentalism in Syria, see Razan Zeytouneh, “A look at Fundamentalist Islam in Syria,” May 2007,http://tharwacommunity.typepad.com/whereto_syria/2006/09/post_1.html.66 For a broader discussion of the emergence of recent Islamists movements in Syria, see Nicholas Blanford, “In secular Syria,an Islamic revival,” Christian Science Monitor, October 3, 2003, http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1003/p06s01-wome.html;Sami Moubayed, “The Islamic Revival in Syria, Mid East Monitor,” Vol. 1, No. 3, Sept-Oct 2006,http://www.mideastmonitor.org/issues/0609/0609_4.htm; Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, "Outside Iraq but Deep in the Fight; ASmuggler of Insurgents Reveals Syria's Influential, Changing Role," Washington Post, June 8, 2005 (noting that “Syria's role insustaining and organizing the insurgency has shifted over time. In the first days of the war, fighters swarmed into Iraq aboardbuses that Syrian border guards waved through open gates, witnesses recalled. But late in 2004, after intense pressure onDamascus from the Bush administration, Syrian domestic intelligence services swept up scores of insurgent facilitators”); NeilMacfarquhar, "Syria, Long Ruthlessly Secular, Sees Fervent Islamic Resurgence," The New York Times, October 24, 2003(noting that “the government manipulates the religious resurgence as a safety valve, periodically loosening the restraints tosee who is involved so they can be monitored.”)67 “Syrian police clash with bombers,” BBC News Online, April 28, 2004,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3664811.stm (accessed November 10, 2008); Anne Penketh, “Peace shattered in21 Human Rights Watch February 2009