Riad al-Turk to be sentenced on June 26th

The Syrian state security court on June 26th will issue its sentence concerning the communist opposition member Riad al-Turk, after his lawyer submitted a defense memorandum of 16 pages in which they asked for his release.

Lawyer Khalil Matouq said that the defense team presented a memorandum including the lecture al-Turk delivered at al-Atasi forum and his full interview with the Qatari satellite TV al-Jazeera.

Lawyer Haitham al-Maleh said that "al-Turk pronounced very tough words ( during the interview with al-Jazeera) but he did not violate the law."

In their memorandums, the lawyers doubted the constitutionality of the court, stressing that asking for changing the constitution, orally, is not a crime. The lawyers said that al-Turk kept silence in the court.