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Syria the Price of Dissent

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Syria the Price of Dissent July 1995 Vol. 7, No. 4 SYRIA THE PRICE OF DISSENT PREFACE..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 3 SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 8 1. THE SUPREME STATE SECURITY COURT: OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 12 Legal Authority and Procedures.............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 13 Criminalization of Peaceful Political Activity................................................................................................................................................................................. 15 Government Officials Comment: No Political Prisoners in Syria............................................................................................................................................. 19 Harsh Sentences and Continuing Trials............................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 International Standards............................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 20 2. SYRIAN LAWYERS CONDEMN THE SECURITY COURT ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 21 Limited Access to Clients ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 23 Torture, Reliance on Coerced Confessions, and Lack of Evidence........................................................................................................................................... 23 Defendants Protest, and Defense Lawyers Withdraw................................................................................................................................................................... 24 The Appointed Lawyers ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 26 Views of the National Lawyers Syndicate.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 26 3. INSIDE THE COURTROOM ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 27 Complaints about Torture........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 28 No Access to Lawyers .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 29 Complaints by Other Defendants............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 29 Prosecution Sessions behind Closed Doors........................................................................................................................................................................................ 30 Additional in camera Proceedings ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 30 Lawyers of Choice Refused ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 31 4. TORTURE .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 32 Other Security Court Defendants Report Torture .......................................................................................................................................................................... 34 1995: The Court Ignores One Torture Complaint for Four Months.............................................................................................................................................. 36 Comments of Syrian Government Officials ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 37 5. RELEASED PRISONERS: CONDITIONS, PRESSURE, AND PUNISHMENT................................................................................................................................................................... 39 Pressure Prior to Release........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 40 Fear and Pressure after Release ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 43 Restrictions on Freedom of Movement and Employment................................................................................................................................................................ 44 Post-Release Punishment: Deprivation of Civil Rights................................................................................................................................................................. 45 APPENDICES........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 47 PREFACE This report focuses on the state security court and the continuing trials of individuals accused of membership in unauthorized political groups. The report also examines the practice of torture in Syria, and the continuing pressure on political prisoners after release. This is the first of a series of reports on Syria that Human Rights Watch will publish in 1995, based on information obtained during an unprecedented, forty-eight-day fact-finding mission earlier this year. To our knowledge, no international human rights organization has ever spent this amount of time inside Syria conducting interviews and carrying out research. This missionCwhich began on March 23, 1995, and concluded almost seven weeks later on May 9, 1995Cwas undertaken with the agreement of the Syrian government. This agreement was received in writing in January 1995, following discussions between the government and Human Rights Watch in 1994 in Washington, D.C., and Damascus. Government officials promised Human Rights Watch that our representatives would be able to travel throughout the country without restrictions, and meet freely with anyone. During the mission, Human Rights Watch representatives indeed travelled freely, without any restrictions or overt surveillance, in metropolitan Damascus and in various governorates. Our representatives had discussions with a wide range of Syrians in Damascus and the governorates of Aleppo, Hasakeh, Homs, and Latakia. These included released political prisoners, victims of torture and other abuses, defendants on trial before the state security court, relatives of sentenced political
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