Syrian authorities release Journalist Nizar Nayouf
Syria, Politics, 5/8/2001

On Monday morning, the Syrian journalist Nizar Nayouf was freed from prison after 9 years of being in jail under the charge of being " member in the committees for defending human rights in Syria," by the beginning of the 1990 s and his participation in " formulating " one of its report.

Nayouf said in a telephone call with the London- based al-Hayat daily to town " sendyanah" in the coastal province of Lattakia that he continued hunger strike since April 24 because he was told by the authorities that he is under " home arrest " in his town.

He said he did not sign any document to stop practicing politics, the tradition used to be made with other detainees in previous years.

Worthy mentioning that the other 600 political prisoners who were freed by the end of 2000 according to an amnesty from President Bashar al-Assad did not sign any document not to practice political activities.

Nayouf ( 39 year old) said " I do not consider myself free as far as there is one political detainees in the jails," noting that releasing him came as a result of an amnesty because the judicial sentence against him ends by the beginning of next year.

By the beginning of 1992, the Syrian authorities sentenced him of " being deprived from civil rights" because he wrote the publication of the committees in charge of defending democratic rights in Syria, denouncing the violation of human rights in the country.

The release of Nayouf comes prior to President Bashar al-Assad's travel to France on May 25 and 26, but the Syrian authorities say that its decision to release him came after the end of a judicial sentence and his release has no connection to " foreign pressures."

Previous Stories:
  Interviews :On the Pope 's visit to Damascus   (5/7/2001)
  Pope blesses large audience at Damascus mass   (5/7/2001)
  Pope visits the Umayyad Mosque   (5/7/2001)
  Damascus: A decision to release Nizar Nayouf   (5/10/2000)

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