Authorities continue judicial persecution of jailed cyber-dissident

Reporters Without Borders condemns the way the authorities are conducting the trial of cyber-dissident Habib Saleh and reiterates its call for his release. The first supposedly public hearing in his trial took place before a Damascus court of assizes on 1 December but his daughter was the only member of the public allowed to attend and the hearing began without his lawyers being present. Aged 61, Saleh was arrested on 7 May for posting political articles online calling for democracy in Syria. He is a regular contributor to Elaph.com (http://www.elaph.com), a website that is censored in Syria because of its outspoken style of news reporting. “The way the trial is being conducted is unacceptable,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The dates of the hearings are set in a summary fashion and no date has been given for the trial's conclusion. Saleh has already spent more than three years in prison. This is the third time he has been tried for expressing his view on online since Bashar el Assad became president in 2000.” The press freedom organisation added: “Saleh is clearly the victim of judicial persecution. We urge the authorities to put a stop to these measures designed to intimidate human rights activists.” Saleh is charged with “spreading mendacious information aimed at weakening national sentiment” under article 285 of the criminal code, “inciting civil and sectarian strife” under article 298 and “attacking the president” under articles 374 and 277. The next hearing has been set for 20 January. Saleh has denied all the charges since the first hearing, held behind closed doors on 11 November. He could get a sentence of three to 15 years in prison or even forced labour for life. Arrested during the 2002 “Damascus Spring” in 2002 and sentenced to three years in prison, Saleh was released on 9 September 2004. Arrested again on 29 May 2005, he was sentenced on 15 August 2006 to three years in prison for “spreading mendacious information.” He was finally released on 12 September 2007 on completing three-quarters of the sentence. Syria is the Arab world's most repressive country towards those posting information online, although the Syrian constitution guarantees “the right to freely express one's opinions by spoken word, in writing or in any other medium.” Reporters Without Borders also calls for the release of three other cyber-dissidents detained in Syria - Firas Saad, Tariq Biassi and Kareem Arabji - of whom there has been no word since July. -------------------- Letter to President Assad about record number of detained journalists and cyber-dissidents ---------------------