Human rights group asks Damascus to free dissident

Published December 2nd, 2002 - 02:00 GMT
Al Bawaba
Al Bawaba

A Paris-based Arab human rights group asked Damascus on Sunday to release a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and his family who the group claimed were apprehended shortly after their extradition from Italy. 

 

In addition, the Arab Human Rights Commission slammed the Italian decision to extradite the family as "inhumane" and illegal. 

 

The AHRC said there has been no news of Mohammed Said Sakhri, his wife Mayssoun Ahmad Lababidi, and their four children since the family arrived in the Syrian capital on November 28. 

 

Sakhri was sentenced in 1982 for membership in the dissident group, "at the peak of the conflict between the brotherhood and the Syrian regime." 

 

The AHRC asked Syrian authorities to release Sakhri, his wife and children, saying sentences against brotherhood members have not been carried out for some long time, according to AFP. 

 

The family had requested political asylum in Italy after arriving from Jordan, "but Italian authorities imprisoned Sakhri's family for security reasons and then extradited them to Damascus." 

 

The AHRC denounced "the inhumane decision of the Italian government which violates the principles of the Geneva convention on asylum," adding it was examining the chances of taking the government to the European Court of Human Rights. 

 

Syria banned the Muslim Brotherhood after accusing it of carrying out a wave of attacks in the 1980s in the aim of destabilizing the country. (Albawaba.com) 

 

© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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