Only “terrorist justice” will not acquit five Syrian information providers

“It was clearly absurd to bring terrorism charges against Mazen Darwish and his colleagues at the SCM, which was a respected source of information about this war-torn country for international media,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “These journalists and human rights activists should never have been imprisoned. If Syria’s justice system refuses to acquit them, it will be committing a terrorist act in the true sense of the term, because its intention will be to inspire terror in all those who defend freedom.” Two of the five defendants, Mansour Omari and Abd al-Rahman Hamada, were released provisionally in February 2013, while the other three have been released in unclear circumstances in the past six weeks – Hani Al-Zitani and Hussein Ghreer on 17 and 18 July respectively, and Mazen Darwish on 10 August. Reporters Without Borders does not know if Darwish, Zitani and Ghreer were among the hundreds of prisoners freed under an amnesty for the Eid-Al-Fitr religious holiday or if they were released as a result of a judicial decision taken around the same time. Arrested along with other colleagues when air force intelligence officers raided the SCM’s Damascus headquarters on 16 February 2012, they were subjected to torture during their three years of arbitrary detention. Darwish was awarded the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Prize in December 2012. According to a Reporters Without Borders tally, at least 30 journalists and online information activists continue to be held by the Syrian government while at least 29 others (including nine foreigners) are either missing or being held hostage by Islamic State or other armed extremist groups. Ranked 177th out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, Syria is the world’s most dangerous country for journalists.