Pro-Kurdish website editor freed after six months in prison

Reporters Without Borders today welcomed the release on 1 October of writer and human rights advocate Mohammed Ghanem, who was arrested on 31 March because of the articles he had posted on his website.He said he was often mistreated during his six months in detention. “Let us not forget that three other people are still being held in Syria for what they wrote on the Internet,” the press freedom organisation said. “This country continues to be the Middle East's biggest prison for cyber-dissidents. And Ghanem's account of his detention confirms that prisoners of opinion are systematically tortured.” Aged 51, Ghanem said he was “treated like an animal” and “humiliated” during his first two weeks in detention. He was then transferred to a prison in the northeastern city of Al-Raqqah, where conditions were less inhumane. Still, “Abou Ghraib and Guantanamo are five-star prisons compared with Syrian prisons,” he said. After being arrested at his home by intelligence agents, he was repeatedly interrogated about the articles posted on his website, especially his statements of support for Syria's Kurdish minority. He was charged with “insulting the Syrian president” and his website was shut down shortly after his arrest. Syria, which is on the Reporters Without Borders list of the 15 worst “Internet enemies,” is one of the world's most repressive countries as regards online free expression. The three cyber-dissidents currently held are Muhened Abdulrahman, who arrested on 7 September 2006, Ali Sayed al-Shihabi, an editorialist for www.rezgar.com who was arrested on 10 August 2006, and Habib Saleh, a contributor to the www.elaph.com news website. ------------- Create your blog with Reporters without borders: www.rsfblog.org