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Syria charges hundreds with "maligning the state"

05 May 2011 01:35 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Hundreds of Syrians have been charged with "maligning the prestige of the state," a Syrian rights group said, in President Bashar al-Assadâ€™s drive to crush pro-democracy protests against his 11-year autocratic rule, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
The charge, which carries a three-year prison sentence, was lodged on Tuesday against hundreds of people detained this week before the Muslim day of prayer on Friday, when the largest demonstrations calling for Assadâ€™s overthrow are typically seen.
"Mass arrests are continuing across Syria in another violation of human rights and international conventions," said Rami Abdelrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The campaign intensified after a tank-backed army unit, led by Assadâ€™s brother Maher, last week shelled and machine-gunned into submission the old quarter of Deraa, cradle of the six-week-old uprising.
Assad said the army would end its mission in Deraa "very soon," according to the semi-official al-Watan newspaper, playing down the uprising there and the armyâ€™s response, which Washington has condemned as "barbaric."
"Any country in the world could be subjected to events that Deraa has been subjected to," Assad was quoted as saying by the newspaper on Wednesday during a meeting with officials from Deir al-Zor and Albou Kamal near the Iraqi border.
Authorities blame armed groups and infiltrators for stoking unrest and firing on civilians and security forces. A military official on state news agency SANA said security forces arrested members of an armed terrorist group in Deraa and found weapons and ammunition hidden underground and in gardens.
Wissam Tarif, executive director of the Insan human rights group, said 2,843 detainees had been verified by family members and the actual number could be as high as 8,000. More than 800 of them had been taken from Deraa.
Those detained across the country include activists, community leaders, people seen taking videos or pictures on mobile phones and people suspected of uploading videos on the Internet, Tarif said. But security forces were also randomly detaining people in Deraa and Douma, he said.
The demonstrations began with demands for political freedom and an end to corruption, but after a heavy security crackdown, protesters now want Assad to leave.
Assad belongs to the minority Alawite Shiâ€™ite sect whose family has ruled majority Sunni Muslim Syria for 41 years.
Security forces have killed at least 560 civilians in attacks on demonstrators since the protests erupted in Deraa on March 18, human rights groups say.
Amnesty International said protesters told the rights group they had been beaten with sticks and cables and were subjected to harsh conditions, including a lack of food.
"The use of unwarranted lethal force, arbitrary detention and torture appear to be the desperate actions of a government that is intolerant of dissent and must be halted immediately," Amnesty official Philip Luther said.
Residents of Damascus suburbs, where many were arrested, said roadblocks and arrests had intensified this week in areas around the capital. One resident said she saw security forces in plain clothes putting up sandbags and a machinegun on a road near the town of Kfar Batna on Tuesday.
FRIDAY ANOTHER TEST
A government official from a neighboring Arab state said the security campaign seemed intended to prevent protests after Friday prayers, the only time Syrians are allowed to gather though security forces prevented thousands from praying in mosques last Friday.
At least six people were arrested on Tuesday after security forces took control of the coastal city of Banias, another urban center where demonstrators are challenging Assad.
Protest leader Anas al-Shughri said the army had sealed the northern entrance and security forces sealed the south.
But around 1,000 protesters marched in the Sunni district of Banias, just south of the main market, carrying loaves of bread to symbolize solidarity with the people of Deraa, a rights campaigner who provided photos of the demonstration, said.
Some 1,000 students demonstrated in the University of Aleppo on Tuesday and thousands marched in the eastern, mostly Kurdish, city of Qamishli, carrying candles and chanting freedom slogans.
International condemnation of the repression has intensified since the Deraa assault, which revived memories of the 1982 crushing of an armed Islamist uprising in the city of Hama by Assadâ€™s father, late President Hafez al-Assad.
Germany and Britain said they were seeking the imposition of European Union sanctions against Syrian leaders -- after a U.S. announcement of sanctions last week -- and France said Assad should be among the targets of sanctions.
In a sign Syria was worried about a loss of confidence in the pound, which has seen some conversion to U.S. dollars, the central bank said it would raise interest rates on deposits by 2 percent and halved banksâ€™ reserve requirements to 5 percent.