Three years in prison for Kurdish journalism student who posted photos on website

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the three-year prison sentence imposed yesterday by the state security court on journalism student Massoud Hamid, a member of Syria's Kurdish minority who was found guilty of "belonging to a secret organisation" and "trying to attach part of Syria's territory to a third country." Calling for his immediate release, the organisation said "the trial was completely unwarranted as he was just exercising his right to circulate information freely on the Internet." Hamid has already spent more than 14 months in prison, "The severity of the sentence shows the Syrian authorities want to gag the press in flagrant violation of the international treaties they have signed," Reporters Without Borders added. Aged 29 and in his second year of journalism school, Hamid was arrested during an exam at Damascus university on 24 July 2003, a month after posting photographs of a peaceful Kurdish demonstration outside UNICEF headquarters in Damascus on www.amude.com, a Kurdish-language site based in Germany. The demonstrators were demanding respect for the civil and political rights of Syria's Kurdish population. Following his arrest, Hamid was detained in Adra prison near Damascus where he was reportedly subjected to mistreatment. Internet access is limited to a privileged minority in Syria. The authorities filter online content and monitor e-mail closely. At least one other person is currently in prison for posting information online or just e-mailing content taken from a banned site.