Far From Justice - Human Rights Watch

interpreted narrowly, with terms such as “national security” and “public order” referring onlyto situations involving an immediate and violent threat to the nation. 108The Syrian authorities have not abided by this narrow interpretation. Rather, they haveequated acts or speeches that are critical of the government‘s policies or the state‘s leaderswith acts that are threats to national security and have used these laws to try writers andbloggers who criticize the authorities as well as individuals accused of insulting thepresident.1. Trials of Writers and BloggersBetween January 2007 and June 2008, the SSSC has relied on broad criminal provisions tosentence ten writers and bloggers who had criticized the authorities.On June 17, 2007, the SSSC sentenced a group of seven young men Husam Melhem, Tariq al-Ghourani, Ayham Saqr, `Ulam Fakhour, Maher Ibrahim Asper, Omar al-Abdullah, and DiabSiriya to sentences varying from five to seven years in jail for “taking action or making awritten statement or speech which could endanger the State or harm its relationship with aforeign country, or expose it to the risk of hostile action.” They had developed a youthdiscussion group and published certain articles online that were critical of the Syrianauthorities. 109On September 23, 2007, the SSSC sentenced Ali Zein al-`Abideen Mej`an to two years inprison for “undertaking acts or writing or speech unauthorized by the government ... thatspoil its ties with a foreign state” because he posted comments online attacking SaudiArabia. 110On April 7, 2008, the SSSC sentenced the writer and poet Firas Sa`ad, 38, to four years in jailfor spreading “false or exaggerated information that weaken national sentiment while Syriais at war or is expecting a war” for publishing articles on the website “Al-hiwar al-Mutamaddin” (www.ahewar.org). In his articles, he defended the Beirut-Damascus108 Manfred Nowak, UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: CCPR Commentary (Kehl am Rein: N.P. Engel, 1993), p. 355.109 See “Recent Arrests and Detentions of Syrian Activists,” Human Rights Watch letter, April 10, 2006,http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/04/11/syria13151_txt.htm110 See “Syria: Stop Arrests for Online Comments,” Human Rights Watch news release, October 8, 2007,http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/10/08/syria17024_txt.htm33 Human Rights Watch February 2009