Cyber-dissident Habib Saleh sentenced to three years in jail

الحكم على حبيب صالح بالسجن لمدة ثلاثة أعوام ----------------------- Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the three-year prison sentence which a Damascus court passed yesterday on cyber-dissident Habib Saleh for criticising the government in online articles. He was convicted under article 285 of the criminal code of “weakening national sentiment,” a charge that is applicable only in wartime, said his lawyer, Mohammad al-Hassani. “Syria continues to be one of the world's most repressive countries towards dissidents,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Already held for nearly a year, Saleh denied all the charges brought against him on 11 November. He has not received due process and his conviction violates Syrian law as this charge can only be used to jail someone in time of war. We call for his conviction to be overturned and for his immediate release.” Arrested in a souk in the northwestern city of Tartus on 6 May 2008, Saleh, now aged 62, wrote regularly for Elaph (http://www.elaph.com), a pan-Arab news website that is censored in Syria because of its outspoken style of news reporting. This is his third conviction in seven years. Arrested during the 2002 “Damascus Spring” and sentenced to three years in prison, Saleh was released on 9 September 2004. Arrested again on 29 May 2005 because of his online articles, he was sentenced on 15 August 2006 to three years in prison on a charge of disseminating false information under article 286. He was released on 12 September 2007 on completing three-quarters of the sentence. Five cyber-dissidents are currently detained in Syria because of what they posted online. Seven young activists have also been held in Saydnaya prison for nearly three years for creating an online discussion group and posting articles. They include Omar Abdallah, the son of Syrian journalist Ali Abdallah, who was held for six months in 2006 for criticising the government, above all in an article describing the Syrian economy as “weak.” Syria is one of the countries that Reporters Without Borders has identified as an “Enemy of the Internet.” The 2009 “Internet Enemies” report can be downloaded here.